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Vol. XLVIII. No. 3 SEPTEMBER, 1920 Serial No. 264
Editor: MICHAEL A. MIKKELSEN Contributing Editor: HERBERT CROLY Business Manager: J. A. OAKLEY
- COVER Design for Faience Garden Decoration PAGE By Leon V. Solon
PlDGEON HlLL, Residence of Meredith Hare, Esq., Huntington, L. I.
Charles A. Platt, Architect . . . . . 179 By Herbert Croly THE NEW YORK ZONING RESOLUTION AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON DESIGN...... 193 By John Taylor Boyd, Jr. THE PROPOSED VICTORY BRIDGE OVER THE HUDSON, Between New York City and Weehawken: Alfred C. Bossom,
Architect ...... 219 By Robert Imlay 3 ENGLISH ARCHITECTURAL DECORATION. Part XV . The Adam Period (Continued) .... 225 By Albert E. Bullock
WINNING DESIGNS IN THE COMPETITION FOR THE FELLOWSHIP IN ARCHITECTURE OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME 236
SOME PRINCIPLES OF SMALL HOUSE DESIGN. Part IX. Interiors
(Continued) . . . . . 243 By John Taylor Boyd, Jr.
Yearly Subscription: United States, $3.00; Foreign, $4-00; Single Copies, 35 cents. Copyright, 1920, by The Architectural Record Co. All rights reserved. Member Audit Bureau of Circulation. PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD COMPANY 115-119 WEST FORTIETH STREET. NEW YORK
T. S. MOBGAJS, Pres. W. D. HADSELL, Vice-Pres. E. S. DODGE, Viee-Pres. J. W. FBANK. Sec'y-Treaa. FRONT PORCH "PIDGEON HILL," RESIDENCE OF MEREDITH HARE, ESQ., HUNTINGTON, L. I. CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT. THE ITECTVRAL RECORD
VOLVME XLVIII NVMBER III
SEPTEMBER, 1920
PIDGEON HILL RESIDENCE ,/MEREDITH HAREJ*? ~ Huntington.LI. Charles A PlaU, Architect
By HERBERT CROLY
was something less than twenty of the year and that afforded the oppor- ITyears ago that well-to-do residents of tunity not only for the usual country New York began to build new houses games and sports, but for gardening, on Long Island, within easy commuting farming, the raising of stock and the distance of the city. Since then the dis- other less frivolous occupations of rural trict on Long Island between twenty and life. A much more wholesome attitude forty miles from the Pennsylvania Sta- towards the country has prompted the tion has steadily increased in popularity. building of the Long Island houses than Improvements in transit by motor and the attitude which prompted the earlier the construction of the tunnels under the building of villas, sometimes by the same East River have had much to do with families, either at Newport or anywhere this increase in popularity, but it is also else on the coast. traceable to the desire of New Yorkers This more wholesome attitude is ex- for country houses, at a convenient dis- pressed in the character and the design tance from the city, which were avail- of the houses. There are comparatively able for residence throughout the whole few examples on Long Island of the 179 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
pompous formality and the palatial pre- house, and whose elements could be de- tentiousness which characterized so many veloped and 'varied without necessarily houses erected by rich Americans during losing the merits of the original design. the last decade of the nineteenth century. It is no wonder, consequent 1 y, that dur- More and more the builders of the new ing the revival of domestic building that houses have started with their minds has recently taken place on Long Island fastened on the kind of residence which the builders have frequently altered and an English country gentleman would enlarged the old farmhouses. In many wish rather than a seventeenth century cases they have succeeded in converting nobleman; and this comparative unpre- them from the residences of yeomen tentiousness of outlook has released the farmers into the residences of gentlemen architects of these buildings from the farmers, without any falsification of the necessity of complying with many em- original type. barrassing and paralyzing demands. The In some few instances, however, ar- newer houses have usually remained for- chitects have perpetuated the type not mal, which is a goodj:hing, because sound merely in alterations but in an entirely architectural design requires a large in- new building. Such is the case with the but their of at fusion of formality ; avoidance house Mr. Meredith Hare Hunt- of mere informality and picturesqueness ington, Long Island, designed by Charles lias not stood in the way of a great gain A. Platt. The Hare residence is an ex- in individuality, in homeliness, and in do- cellent example of the very best quali- mestic propriety. In many cases the ties which are now characterizing Ameri- Tiouses bespeak a living relationship with can domestic architecture. It combines the people who occupy them; and the in a very happy way spaciousness with people who occupy them possess stand- economy. Architects always find it diffi- ards and interests which are adapted to cult to design a house which look ample sincere, beautiful and significant ex- enough to form the background for a pression. When the history of American liberal life without becoming wasteful of domestic architecture of the existing space; but in Mr. Hare's house, Mr. generation comes to be written, the Long Platt has succeeded in excluding all Island houses, particularly those built superfluities while retaining an atmos- during the past twelve or thirteen years, phere of generosity and abundance. He will form the best and the richest mate- has kept the scale and the general appear- rial which the historian will have to use. ance of a Long Island farmhouse, which Long Island before the advent of the formed, of course, the background for modern architectural movement pos- anything but a spacious life; and with- sessed the advantage of a peculiar out departing from the unpretentious usual species of domestic design. The simplicity essential to the type, he has farmhouse of that region was not designed a building which forms an en- sheathed but was clap-boarded or tirely appropriate residence for people and the were some- shingled ; shingles with leisure who prefer to devote the what larger in size than those used else- time, no longer occupied with the struggle where, somewhat thicker and were for existence, to cultivating the arts and painted white. Since in a wooden build- amenities of life. This house was de- ing so much of the effect depends upon signed, and successfully designed, for the surface, the texture, and the delinea- the purpose of providing an appropriate tion of the material, these Long Island setting for the life of a particular family. shingles, super-imposed upon the gen- When a nation educates architects who erally good lines and appropriate details are capable of creating propriety of re- of the early farmhouse, created perhaps lationship between buildings and lives, the most interesting type of small resi- and when the life which is expressed in dence, for the use of the yeoman farmer, the building possesses sincerity, distinc- which was erected in this country. It tion and value, it is by way of creating certainly created a type which was more a domestic architecture which will en- flexible than the New England farm- dure, and deserve to endure, in the aes- 180 W g H
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FLOOR PLANS-"PIDGEON HILL," RESIDENCE OF MEREDITH HARE, ESQ., HUNTINGTON, L. I. CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT GARDEN ELEVATION-'TIDGEON HILL," RESIDENCE OF MEREDITH HARE, ESQ., HUNTINGTON, L. I. Charles A. Platt, Architect.
BLOCK PLAN-"PIDGEON HILL," RESIDENCE OF MEREDITH HARE, ESQ., HUNTINGTON, L. I. Charles A. Platt, Architect. 183 DETAIL OF GARDEN ELEVATION "PIDGEON HILL," RESIDENCE OF MERE- DITH HARE, ESQ., HUNTINGTON, L. I. CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT.
DETAIL OF GARDEN ELEVATION "PIDGEON HILL," RESIDENCE OF MERE- DITH HARE, ESQ., HUNTINGTON, L. I. CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT. EAST END OF TERRACE "PIDGEON HILL," RESIDENCE OF MEREDITH HARE, ESQ., HUNTINGTON, L. I. CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT. QJ U 2wgE fi
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thetic consciousness of future Americans. there is none who has so frequently suc- But, of course, a country house needs ceeded in providing for his clients build- also another kind of propriety. It needs ings which in a few years look as if they to fit not only the lives of its occupants, had been a very long time where they but also the particular site on which it is are. Mr. Hare's house does not look built. There are some residences, of old yet. It is not old enough to settle which the Newport palaces form the per- down into its landscape with gentlemanly fect illustration, which can never be- assurance and with complete self-posses- come adapted to their sites. There are sion. A few more years must elapse others, of which one finds so many ex- before it will become really mellow. But amples in England, that, while they were it is clearly becoming mellow very not designed for their sites, have after a rapidly; and if the reader would like to few hundred years grown into the land- know why, he can discover the reason by scape and now look as if they were al- examining the plan and the lay-out in ways intended to be just where they are. relation to the design. The scale and Finally, there are others that only a few the dimensions of the house are nicely years after their erection look as if they adjusted to a site which demanded in- had grown up on their site. They ob- timacy and some informality of treat- tain their confirmation not from the ment. This the illustrations clearly show. weathering of time, but from their inti- What they cannot show so well is the mate relationship to the advantages and success with which the porch of the limitations of their immediate surround- house provides its residents with an in- ings. Among the many American archi- troductory approach to that which is best tects who have made a personal contribu- worth looking at in the surrounding tion to American domestic architecture landscape.
191 ADDITION TO NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE TROWBRIDGE & LIVINGSTON, ARCHITECTS. The NEW YORK ZONING RESOLUTION AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON DESIGN
John Taylor Boydjr
years' trial has proved the ranged and dimensioned to suit the pur- FOURvalue of the New York Zoning poses for which the building is used. So,- Resolution of 1916. By adopting likewise, a city becomes an organized^ this measure New York City put into efficient structure, only when it is ar- practice principles new to the planning of ranged by districts, each of which is a American cities. Fundamentally, the ef- carefully defined unit serving a def- fects of the law are two: It safeguards inite purpose. And, since a city can- the interests of the city and of adjacent not be divided into units by walls, its property owners in the location and in the neighborhoods must be set off from one of all it the and law its character design buildings ; organizes another by law, by city into a coherent, highly developed must be prescribed through requiring^ system of districts or neighborhoods, in that all the buildings that are erected which each district unit is clearly defined, within the bounds of each district con- and its character maintained by the pro- form to the standards established for the visions of the law. district. In a word, one may compare Quite different is this conception of a this new conception of a city with the city from older notions prevailing in older one by saying that older ideas pic- America. Both in law, and in fact, our ture the city as a kind of fungus, in which cities are huge, formless masses of streets the street and block system are the cells ; and blocks, sprawling over areas of ge- while the new ideal created by the Zoning ography, none too well accommodated to Resolution conceives it to be a mechan- conditions of topography. Their maps ism of related parts, or units, in the develop haphazardly, without any ration- shape of neighborhoods. al control, in whatever ways irresponsible The break in ideas is evident in the private interests dictate usually in deep- working out of the zoning scheme. The er confusion as the complexity of modern districts were established by classifying life increases, and generating as they them into types. The types were deter- grow discomfort, demoralization, and mined not at all arbitrarily, but only after economic loss. a long study which, at the time that it was The street system of itself brings no made, impressed people by its breadth, its- real organization into a city. With its thoroughness, and its practical and sci- units of blocks, the street system is no- entific accuracy. As a result of this in- thing more than a scheme of measure- vestigation, the legal neighborhoods ment in the city plan, except as it forms which are formed by the Zoning Resolu- part of the transportation system. The tion correspond closely to the physical truth of this assertion becomes clearer if characteristics of the neighborhoods as one compares the plan of a city with the they existed some of them vaguely de- plan of a building. If the floor plan of a fined at the time of passage of the reso- building were left as an open space, and lution. The physical characteristics of if its area were then marked off into a the neighborhoods are chiefly their area series of small squares, the building would of streets and blocks, and types of build- be "planned" like most modern cities. A ings, and, even more important, their building has an effective plan only when local social and economic organization. its floor area is divided clearly into sepa- But it should not be thought that the rate but related spaces, each carefuly ar- character of these neighborhoods was- 193 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. fixed solely upon their local aspects; the it becomes apparent. That is, the me- process of zoning also covered the city chanical activities of a city function more as a whole and took account of all its efficiently, and reach higher standards many factors of co-ordination. In the than do the non-mechanical activities of resulting scheme, the block system is political administration and of social and but the unit of measurement, and recently economic relationships. These latter, it is coming to be thought of as the prop- every one knows, are the dark part of er unit of housing in apartments. Thus modern business cities. Consequently, the century-old block sub-division into in view of the contrast, may not the es- lots 25 by 100 feet promises to become sential need of a city be to regard it as a obsolete. This relationship of housing structure and as a mechanism of city to city planning was treated in the two planning and engineering and of archi- issues of the Architectural tecture preceding ; and then to plan and to construct Record under the title of "Garden Apart- it soundly on this basis ? If that be done, ments in Cities." the political and social side of the city, But, important as zoning is, its organi- with all its human relationships, might zation of a city into a mechanism of dis- become more wholesome. There might tricts is not the whole of city planning. then be less confusion and disagreement City planning has come to mean in recent and partisanship. It would seem as if years a multitude of activities, and its many of the troubles of city life were de- field has expanded until it includes most bated on the wrong premises. Energies of the aspects of city life. The relation- are wasted in a conflict of isms and olo- ships of these other aspects to zoning de- gies, when the real cause may be discom- serve a brief notice. fort, due to faults in the mechanical City planning may be said to have both structure. The civic organization can a mechanical and a non-mechanical side. hardly function properly in a city if the The mechanical side includes the familiar city is not planned to accommodate it, activities of engineering, "sanitation, the any more than a business organization street system and transportation. On the can be efficient if it operates in a build- non-mechanical side there are the human ing that has not been planned to suit its relationships, taking form in countless needs. ways, but principally in the fields of law, When these broader relationships of political administration, economics and zoning in the city plan are thus under- social organization. Together, all this stood, one will more easily appreciate the variety of factors tends to create a tangle technical operation of its principles. It of interests, which hitherto has foiled at- should be said that the law itself is intri- tempts to unravel it. The confusion has cate in its workings, because it deals with bred in some quarters an attitude of hope- the intricate conditions of New York real lessness toward the problems of the mod- estate. These in turn reflect both the di- ern business city. Many observers have vided topography of the Port of New pronounced the task of organizing a city York and of the surrounding lands, and to be impossible, and they can see at best also the complex, growing, ever chang- but a method of haphazard day-to-day ing character of the modern business city. meeting of difficulties as they arise. For these reasons, taking a specific ex- The zoning principle definitely repudi- ample, the particular technical details of ates this muddle-through method of city the law which deal with heights of build- organization. Zoning is only another ings are much more involved than the factor of the mechanical side of city corresponding building regulations of cer- and is still another tain cities like Paris. Paris is planning ; housing new European department to be added to those of engi- a city of a long history of steady, slow neering, sanitation and transportation. growth, which has been carefully planned Now when we view this mechanical side and controlled for generations. Also, of city planning as a whole, it would Paris is not a center of commerce like seem as if a significant truth in regard to New York, and it is not to any extent in-
194 LIGGETT-WINCHESTER-LEY CORPORATION BUILD- ING, NEW YORK CITY. CARRfiRE & HASTINGS, AND R. H. SHREVE, CONSULTING ARCHITECTS. x t/5 > H
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dustrial. The Paris restrictions are rig- width of streets, which is recognized in orous and in and the simple application ; they principle of cutting down the heights enforce aesthetic principles, because they of the buildings proportionately on the recognize that a beautiful city has value, narrower streets, in order to protect the even commercially. rights and equities of property owners In establishing zones or districts, the in sanitation and light and air. These Resolution divides the into Zoning city objects are accomplished in a variety of three classifications, called Use Districts, ways. First, there is the division of the Height Districts, and Area Districts. The city into five types of Height Districts, classification into Use Districts defines called the "one, 2 1%, \y2 , and 2*/2 the types of buildings that may be erected times" districts. How this rule operates in each district. Use Districts are divid- technically may be illustrated by taking ed into (1) Residence, (2) Business and the "\y2 times" districts as an example. (3) Unrestricted Districts. In Residence It means that if the street on which a Districts all buildings that are built after building is to be built is 100 feet wide, the adoption of the Zoning Resolution taking the width between building lines, shall be residences, although certain types the building height will be 1^ times 100 of buildings named in the law that are feet or 150 feet. This refers to the normally required in a residence area are height of the building at the building permitted. These are such buildings as line. Above that height the building may schools, churches, clubs, telephone ex- go higher, provided the wall on the build- changes, etc. In the Business Districts ing is set back in the same proportion, certain industries are definitely forbid- that is, set back \y2 feet for every one den principally large scale industries foot of height that the wall is carried up. which cause noise, odors, or other dis- Several setbacks may be built, all con- agreeable effects, like stock yards, boiler forming to the angle formed by drawing works, or chemical factories. Industries of a line from the center of the street small size and of unobjectionable char- through a point in the top of the wall of acter, particularly those in which ^a prod- the first setback on the building line. uct like clothing is made and sold at re- The principle is more easily understood tail on the premises, are encouraged under by referring to the illustrations of the certain restrictions. In Unrestricted Dis- buildings in these pages. On streets less tricts any type of building may be erect- than 50 feet wide, height regulations are ed, though it is understood that, since those of 50 feet wide streets, and on many of these districts are but partly de- streets more than 100 feet wide, or on veloped usually these are situated on the streets fronting parks, the height regula- outskirts of the city they may hereafter tions are those of streets 100 feet wide. be "restricted" when their identity be- This latter exception embodies the princi- comes more clearly defined and if it is ple that on a wide street a tall building deemed advisable to preserve this iden- robs the neighbors at the rear of light tity. and air as much as it would if it were The scheme of the Height Districts located on a narrow street. is less simple. In brief, the object in Besides this general proportioning of fixing heights is to establish a gradation heights the law introduces further re- of heights of buildings adjusted to two finements. It requires setbacks on ''ex- conditions. One is the advisability of terior" or street lines, but not on "interi- allowing very high buildings in centers of or" or lot lines. Projections above walls intensive commercial activity, notably on termed "dormers" or bulkheads are Manhattan Island, as one extreme; and allowed under certain limitations. As an of establishing a gradation of heights example, the turrets at the corners scaling down, at the other extreme, to the of the first setback on the Liggett Build- outlying residence districts where isolated ing, illustrated herewith, are technically houses or semi-detached houses are the "dormers" under the law. A similar slight rule. The other condition is the varying excess is allowed for cornices and para- 198 FISK BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. CARRERE & HASTINGS AND R. H. SHREVE, ARCHITECTS. IV.I6W t, I9H FkOOt HA US
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FISK BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. Carrere & Hastings and R. H. Shreve, Architects. 200 FISK BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. Carrere & Hastings and R. H. Shreve, Architects.
pets. Another variation permits excess features of the zoning resolution, for it heights where a building is constructed encourages the building of great towers amid a group of old buildings that were like those of the Woolworth and Metro- built before the Zoning Resolution was politan Life, which have added so much adopted, and which were carried to great- to the beauty of the city. er height than is now permitted. The division into Area Districts follows Still a fifth variation of the height reg- the same principles as those employed in ulations deserves attention. Under limi- the height districting, especially in pre- tations governing position on the plan in serving standards for light and for venti- relation to building lines, street corners, lation. The Area classification also recog- etc., a tower may rise to any height de- nizes the gradation between the desirable sired, provided it does not cover more height extremes of Commercial and Resi- than 25 per cent, of the lot area. This dence Districts. It increases the sizes of provision for towers is one of the finest interior courts and yards as the heights
- 20'" 10 2+" rtOOL l ft H } INC I FISK BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. Carrere & Hastings and R. H. Shreve, Architects 201 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD of buildings increases, corresponding to a mechanism of districts or neighbor- the Height District classification; and it hoods. In fact, one not familiar with secures open spaces in Residence Districts the history of the adoption of the law by means of an ingenious system. One might ask, how was such a completely noteworthy provision is that the area dis- new system of city planning ever es- tricting scheme operates to encourage the tablished in face of the older practice, owners of buldings in Residence Districts which allowed an individual to build to set apart additional areas for recrea- where, what and how he wished ? tion space besides those required for The full answer to this question can- courts. not be given here; but I may say that Under the scheme of Area Districts one reason was the extraordinary effort five types of districts are established, to make the provisions of the law just, known as A, B, C, D, E. In the "A" and to define the districts with the great- and "B" districts, commercial structures est precision so as to cause the least pos- in the "C" districts tene- to values. predominate ; sible damage existing property ments are the rule, and in them the area Even the excellence of the law, however, regulations are much like those of the could hardly have ensured its adoption Tenement House Act of 1901 for build- had not the growing chaos in New York ings less than six stories high. "D" dis- City real estate forced civic action to re- trict regulations are designed for row lieve it. Property owners were taking housing of dwellings for one and two alarm. Huge real estate values were be- families. "E" districts are composed of ing created or destroyed within the space detached and semi-detached private of a few years' time in certain areas, until dwellings. In the "E" districts, only 50 per finally the old system actually broke cent, of the area of the lot may be built down in some blocks. According to Mr. upon interior lots, and 70 per cent, on Lawson Purdy, an authority on New corner lots. The "D" districts also" have a York real estate, the construction of the similar percentage limitation on the area Equitable Building on lower Broadway of the lot to be occupied by the building. injured the equity in surrounding prop- The foregoing summarizes the main erty, by monopolizing the light and air, points of the law, chiefly those establish- to the extent of over a million dollars, ing the Use, Height and Area classifica- and the city was forced to reduce adja- tions. I have carried it only far enough cent assessments by at least that amount. to show how thoroughly the law pre- Further uptown a single block, in size scribes the location and design of build- 200 feet by 800 feet, was assessed in 1911 ings. For further technical details, the for $17,000,000 and in 1916 for $7,000,- reader is referred to a pamphlet, "Build- 000; the erection of industrial buildings ing Zones," published by the Lawyers' in the district was the chief cause of the Mortgage Company of New York City, loss. Cases like these persuaded people which gives a full account of the law and to accept the zoning system as the only its technical application in architecture, way to protect property values. The together with many diagrams illustrating system has proved a success, and today the working out of the principles in build- no one would care to return to old meth- ing design. This admirable pamphlet is ods. In fact, only four cases attacking the work of Mr. George Burdett Ford, the validity of the law have so far been consultant to the commission charged tried in the courts, and these were de- with zoning, assisted by Mr. Herbert S. cided on grounds that did not affect the Swan, well-known for his studies in light constitutionality of the law itself; thus and air restrictoins on buildings, and by the constitutionality of the Zoning Reso- Mr. F. P. Schiavoni. lution has never yet been passed upon. When the essentials of the law are As concerns the legal aspect of zoning understood one realizes, I think, how regulations, the weight of authority seems truly they break with old ideas by thus to be that they can be made to conform establishing the character of the city as to our American legal system. The
202 PARK-MADISON BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. WARREN & WETMORE, ARCHITECTS. tAST FOR.TY J'LVC./f-TH J'TR.ttT
TYPICAL FLOOR. PLAN TH1R.D To /1I/1TH FLOOR./ I/ICL
PARK-MADISON BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. Warren & Wetmore, Architects. courts in recent years have upheld laws morals and safety." Sanitation is legally of various states, which contain some of a function of the police power, and thus to the principles applied in zoning. They a property holder may be forbidden have done this on the basis of the police build his building so high above adjoin- power, "which extends to public health, ing buildings as to rob his neighbor of
EAST FOt,TY ytVE/)TH -/fUE.ET THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. light and air. A commission is charged suiting architects. Their design developed with the operation of the law. the possibilities of the law in a striking With this account of the chief charac- way, and the favorable situation of each teristics of the Zoning Resolution ended, on corner lots permitted the architects to we may proceed to some illustrations of take full advantage of their opportunity. its specific operation in the design of As a result, New York City gains two buildings. The buildings shown herewith bold, splendid monuments of architecture. are all huge commercial structures, and The Liggett Building, as it is coming form, therefore, only one class of all the to be called, is in process of construction buildings which are affected by the law. on the corner of Madison Avenue and This is, however, the class that is most Forty-second Street. The key to the suc-
./EVE/NTH ./TR-EET
SETBACK. FLOOR. PLAN
PARK-MADISON BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. Warren & Wetmore, Architects. drastically controlled, and the one which cess of this building lies as in most tri- illustrates its operation most clearly. Of umphs of architecture in its plan. It the other classes, hotels are similar, will be noted that most of these struc- factories are not often built up to tures illustrated are planned solid, with- unusual heights, and, in Residence Dis- out a center light court. Under the zon- tricts, the provisions of the law do not ing restrictions, such a court would be differ much from the provisions of the very large; and, if it made the plan of Tenement House Act, except to reinforce the building a hollow square, the great it in some particulars. Consequently, tall area needed for the service features of office buildings are fairly typical of the corridors, lobbies, elevators, stairs, toi- effects of the zoning principles. lets, etc., which bring in no rent, would Of the buildings illustrated herewith, be subtracted from the desirable space none typify better the workings of the along the outside wall. But, by building law than the Liggett-Winchester-Ley the plan solid, these service features are Corporation Building, and the Fisk placed in the center, where the space is Building, for both of which Carrere & not well lighted and is hence not rentable Hastings and R. H. Shreve acted as con- for offices. This arrangement makes not 205 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. only an efficient plan, but, in the upper would not have let pass the opportunity stories, it has the great merit of facili- thus offered of modelling the lower wings tating the beautiful setbacks in ter- in setbacks and terraces, so that their races and towers. In the Liggett Build- form and outlines would have harmonized ing, for example, the fine central tower better with the design of the tower. On which is the making of the design of the whole, it is fair to say that most of the the exterior could never have been con- tall buildings of New York antedating the structed over a center court. Zoning Resolution are failures architectur- The illustration showing the perspec- ally, in spite of the ingenuity which their tive of this structure indicates that it architects have lavished on them, trying should be one of the most effective build- vainly to overcome their blocky mass. ings in New York. Such distinction in Such beautiful effects as one sees are mass, outline and detail, if carried into all due either to isolated towers or to occa- architecture, would make the business sional picturesque effects of groupings or districts of American cities beautiful perspectives which are purely accidental. not only in respect to individual Of such is the famous spectacle of the buildings, but considered from the aspect buildings in the financial district of low- of each street as a whole. They er Manhattan, where the ugly blocks of would furnish an extraordinary pic- the bulky buildings cannot be distin- ture where the building masses would guished from the silhouette of the mass, harmonize by virtue of the cornice with outline of the whole group ac- line of the first setback coming on the cented here and there by the tall towers same level, forming thus a vast terrace, of the Woolworth, the Singer and the above which would rise a wonderful ar- Bankers' Trust buildings. And if New ray of minor terraces, pavilions, loggias, York is afflicted with many ugly tall roofs, dormers, turrets, towers, all pyra- buildings, what shall be said of other miding into the sky. New York might cities, whose picture shows two or vie with ancient Rome of the seven hills, three or a half dozen colossal, crude, but in a different way, in a character en- block-line structures poking up at tirely its own. Such is the possible effect intervals above low buildings into the of the zoning principle, and how differ- sky, without shape or proportion, unre- ent it is from the present collection of lated to each other about as beautiful crude cubical masses that poke their and as inspiring as a collection of packing harsh, gaunt outlines into the sky, with- cases on a sidewalk. Quantity is not out any harmony of one building to an- quality, and vast size of itself is not a other, blunt, angular objects that no skill recipe for beautiful architecture. in design or in details can redeem or else On the other hand, one should not conceal. I believe that the reader will make the mistake of concluding that the admit that this picture of the ugliness of Zoning Resolution of itself creates beauti- American cities is not exaggerated. It ful buildings. It merely offers the archi- is true, here and there the imagination of tect an opportunity to prove his ability. the architect and the appreciation of an As stated above, the law is based on eco- owner have created a building that nomic and sanitary factors, and does not shows artistry in its mass and outline; directly take account of aesthetic values. but such exceptions are rare, and they If the desire for fine architecture appears occur mostly when a building resembles to be growing in New York City, that is the form of a tower. The beauty of due to the spirit of the owners of these these towers suffers from the proximity tall buildings, and to the architects, who of bulkier structures. Even the tower of are slowly persuading the public of the the Woolworth Building is somewhat truth that fine architecture has definite marred by the two low, boxlike wings value in a commercial building. There- beside it. Had the Woolworth Building fore, the effect of the Zoning Resolution been erected after the passage of the is to offer the architect a geometrical shell Zoning Resolution, Mr. Cass Gilbert which is based almost solely on sanitary
206 _^ s tw^wrsi ,.;.;;
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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. STARRETT & VAN VLECK, ARCHITECTS. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. Starrett & Van Vleck, Architects.
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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. Starrett & Van Vleck, Architects. 209 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
and financial considerations. If the the steel points of support, a very weak architect proceeds to fill this shell looking effect indeed. with a building, he will find that In designing the Fisk Building, the the result has no form or propor- architects again showed fine understand- tion or symmetry of outline. It is his ing of the features of the law. Where, duty to model within the limits of the in the Liggett Building, they demon- legal shell a beautiful building. In the strated to the owner how fine a design process he may even find it necessary to might be obtained, in the Fisk Building persuade the owner to sacrifice a bit of they upheld the same principle before the space here and there in order to achieve Zoning Commission. It happens that the his design. Fisk Building, located at 1767 Broadway, Such was the method employed in the lies across the boundaries of a "IjA times" Liggett Building. The fine symmetry of and a "2*6 times" Height District. A its upper stories is not prescribed by the literal following of the restrictions law, which would enforce only two set- would have dropped the first setback backs, those in the streets. The setbacks on Eighth Avenue much lower for have been carried around the other two a distance of 100 feet, and would sides, where a small amount of space have carried this setback along Fifty- was sacrificed beyond the requirement of seventh Street. This would have cut; off the law in order to gain the effect. The a corner of the first setback on Fifty- owners thus viewed the project broadly, seventh Street and thus made a fine, sym- carrying the same fine appreciation into metrical design impossible. When thejar- details, with concessions here and there chitects perceived how the law operated to design, yet at the same time mindful 'of so unfortunately in this instance, they the necessary limitations of cost of a went before the commission and asked, arid an which allowed business structure. For instance, they ; obtained, exception objected to the use of metal spandrels the first setback on Fifty-seventh Street between the windows, which, painted to be raised to the height of the one on black, made possible the 'fine vertical Eighth Avenue. Their appeal was bajsed lines of the front, but approved the mak- solely on the wish to provide a beautiful in black terra cot- this the ing of these spandrels building; and following object, \ to set the of ta. The owners, on their own initiative, ; architects agreed back reat
installed marble wainscots in >. the corri- the building more than the law required, I details to so that the thus sacrificed dors of all floors. cite these ; space equals show the broad point of view that gov- the space gained by raising the setback. erns the design of these great buildings, Thus their clients gained no financial bene- and how even present costs do not pre- fit from the change. This decision reflects vent people from obtaining fine architec- admirably upon the board and the archi- ture. tects, for, although the board does '-not Some further features of the design of solicit exceptions to its regulations on : ar- this Liggett Building are of interest. In tistic grounds that depends on the initi- the elevations, factors of design and cost ative of the architect by its action it are finely adjusted. Brick was used ef- showed itself willing to admit the factor fectively instead of more expensive ma- of architectural beauty into its policy.; It terials, and the blending of color promises is to be hoped that this principle will be to be one of the best features of the up- extended in zoning. per stories. In the two lowest floors, A third splendid structure is the Cun- the big motive of glass and metal ard Steamship Company's building in is a bold device in design, forming lower Broadway, in the financial district a fine, strong base to the whole building, of Manhattan, now under construction, and yielding the maximum space for the of which Mr. Benjamin Wistar Morris is show windows of the stores. This is a the architect. Its plan is exceptional by far better solution than the usual thin, reason of the huge open domed lobby on long lines of stone, wide apart, that cover the ground floor to be used by the Cunard 210 MADISON AVENUE OFFICES, NEW YORK CITY. STARRETT & VAN VLECK AND A. D. PICKERING, ARCHITECTS. I > "
MADISON AVENUE OFFICES, NEW YORK CITY. Starrett & Van Vleck and A. D. Pickering, Architects. 212 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
The fine of its organization. massing up- avenues, and was recently completed ; per stories should add to the appearance while the second is being erected on of the district. Madison Avenue, between Forty-third Warren & Wetmore are the architects and Forty-fourth streets. The first has of the Park-Madison Building, which oc- not the advantage of a situation on a cupies the whole block between Madison corner like the other buildings, but the and Park avenues and Forty-sixth and architect has effected a striking pyramid Forty-seventh streets, and is now under of terraces. This building illustrates the construction. Here, also, like its neigh- terracing principle of setbacks to a high- bor, the Liggett Building, the elevators er degree than most buildings. In the and similar services occupy the centers building of the Madison Avenue Offices
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54
MADISON AVENUE OFFICES, NEW YORK CITY. Starrett & Van Vleck and A. D. Pickering, Architects.
of the two parts of the buildings, which the owners could not gain possession of space is too dark to be rentable for of- the two lots in the area built upon, and as fices. Monumental, indeed, are its vast a result the building could not be designed proportions, with its twin-like upper parts as a whole. This is to be regretted, for rising above the lower mass, their tops Starrett & Van Vleck have produced well modeled with setbacks. This design some fine business buildings. Their older conforms to the style of most of the design, No. 8 West Fortieth Street, is buildings in this district around the Grand one of the most beautiful business build- Central Station, which was also designed ings in New York, in its towerlike aspect, by Warren & Wetmore. exquisite outlines, fineness of scale and The National Association Building and beautifully blended color of light tan the Madison Avenue Offices are both brick and limestone details that fuse designed by Starret & Van Vleck. The like a pattern of tapestry in the upper first runs from Forty-third to Forty- portions. I have always admired the col- fourth Street, between Fifth and Sixth or of this edifice, which is of a quality 213 . 81
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J Q .2. c CUNARD BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. BENJAMIN WISTAR MORRIS, ARCHITECT. THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
that is but rarely attained in tall build- At times, when the wind is from the Its surface and shines in ings. gleams north and the atmosphere is crystal, these the and catches the so sunlight light vast shapes will jut up gaunt and stark, that the color seems to be always every line and detail revealed, as if cut changing. Nothing could from yield greater steel, naked in the cold blinding charm in a tall and it is seen at building, glare. But on other days, when the wind its best in the Giralda Tower in Seville, comes off the sea, from the east or south, Spain. The Giralda, too, has a very tingeing the light with a faint mellowness light brick, but it is warmer, slightly or mist, then the towers will stand in a more roseate in tone in some lights and thinnest dazzling veil of atmosphere, their golden in others. The equally famous soaring outlines melting ever so Mangia Tower of Siena has this same slightly into the blue sky, their vast flanks stream- effect of evanescent color. But so ing with sunshine. In this softer, far most of the architects of Ameri- slightly golden illumination they may have some- can skyscrapers have not been able thing of the harmony and mystery and to picture their towers with the eyes illusion that brings the final quality of art of a colorist. Their is to accent practice into architecture. form and outline until, three hundred These new skyscrapers will be the vis- feet in detail of their air, every buildings ible symbols of the Zoning Resolution. appears as hard, and often as cold, as But one should not forget that they are steel. It be that the character of might .but the crowning dramatic feature of the some of those old Gothic towers might deep-lying new purpose of the modern be studied to whose advantage, tops business city of its new structural or- finer in scale toward the in such grow tip, ganization. The Zoning Resolution is the a as to cause an illusion of distance, basic in way step city planning; the new city of of In Renais- atmosphere, mystery. planning that aims to bring order, coher- sance and modern towers the opposite ence and coordination into city life. The is of the practice followed, coarsening older conception of a city as a formless, scale in the It be upper heights. may unrelated mass of blocks, growing as it claimed that this latter practice is good will, tied together by the system of streets, architecture but it can be this ; hardly doubted developing haphazardly no longer that the other, the Gothic one, is more serves the purpose. In New York this surely art. idea of a fungus has now given way to All in all, New York may look forward an organization of well defined units to the day when these giant structures of districts and neighborhoods, carefully shall be completed, when they shoulder co-ordinated to the plan of the whole their tops of terraced and pyloned masses city. Such is its theory, and New high above the skyline of the city, into York came to accept it as a matter of the brilliant light of the sky in America. self-preservation.
217 PROPOSED VICTORY BRIDGE OVER THE HUDSON. ALFRED C. BOSSOM, ARCHITECT. The PROPOSED VICTORY BRIDGE OVER THE HUDSON BETWEEN NEWYORK CITY & WEEHAWKEN ALFRED C. BOSSOM, ARCHITECT
By Robert Imla/
her immense rivers, America being more effective at that time, but WITHis the builder of mighty bridges. since the war the traffic difficulties of The best known of these is the New York have so increased that the day group spanning the East River and con- seems to be drawing near when a bridge necting Manhattan Island with the Bor- will become feasible. oughs of Brooklyn and of Queens in But whatever be the future of this Long Island. It is proposed to supple- proposed Bridge of Victory, it is of vital ment these East River bridges on the interest as a design, and for us its signi- other side of Manhattan with a gigantic ficance lies chiefly in the possible effect new one that shall link New York City on the city plan of New York. with the New Jersey communities on the With the traffic tunnel of which the other side of the Hudson River. The construction has been authorized it will sponsors of the project intend it as a me- be the second great link between Manhat- morial of the late war, to be called the tan and New Jersey. Doubtless more Victory Bridge. tunnels will be driven under the river in As the illustrations show, this Victory the future, for the experts concerned in Bridge will be far larger than its prede- the construction of the tunnel feel that cessors over the East River. It will be it will be the first of a group. Thus, by larger, because the Hudson River is virtue of these surface and sub-surface wider its span will be one-half mile links, the division created by the Hud- long; in width and capacity it will son River will be overcome and, in the the railroad be much bigger, since matter of city plan, the New Jersey com- tracks will cross it on the lowest deck munities, of Jersey City, Hoboken, Wee- in addition to the traffic of rapid transit, hawken, may become an integral part of motors and foot passengers; and in the New York. In fact, in recent years, this monumental design of its huge towers it conception of planning New York to in- will be one of the great works of clude the New Jersey side of the river architecture of the nation. A more daring has been growing. It first developed it York project could hardly be conceived, yet with, regard to the Port of New is planned to be self-supporting financial- which authorities who are not influ- well to but here local should ly. It may be point enced by allegiance agree include the that, although in this form the scheme is be conceived to New Jersey waters sur- new, the idea of it is old. The first defi- as well as the New York York This view- nite proposal to build a Hudson River rounding New Bay. includes the bridge came just before the war, when point transportation system of the whole district, partic- a joint commission of the states of New Metropolitan the terminal of rail- York and New Jersey was appointed to ularly systems the^ in determine the relative merits of a bridge roads that radiate into New York City, and a tunnel. A tunnel was chosen as New York and New Jersey. The railroads
219 PROPOSED VICTORY BRIDGE OVER THE HUDSON. Alfred C. Bossom, Architect. serve both the Port of New York and problem of New York City is caused by New York City, and the traffic conges- the congestion in Manhattan Island. tion, which has grown up in load- Manhattan Island has many functions. It ing and unloading of freight, its trans- is a large part of the Port of New York, fer and exchange, threatens, unless it be which carries a far larger proportion of promptly and radically solved, to injure the shipping of the United States than permanently the Port and the city. Heavy any other Port; it is a great railroad lighterage expenses and expenses of mo- terminal and distributing center for tor transport, resulting from the need of freight of the adjacent country by rail
these services to the and motor it is a market center ; supplement railroads, ; great have laid a heavy burden of charges on and besides these it carries on much man- commerce. ufacturing all in addition to its vast The pressure of events, therefore, activities in finance, retail selling, real es- more than anything else, has forced New tate, its intellectual and recreational ac- York City and the New Jersey bank of tivities and its own local necessities. The the river to act together vigorously to long, narrow island can hardly hold them protect the welfare of both. Unfortu- all, and they are all growing amazingly. nately local interests and political divisions Confusion is great, is increasing, and still stand obstinately in the way they causes economic loss. The situation is are in some ways harder to overcome becoming intolerable. than the tremendous physical obstacles Hence the relationship of both tunnel of geography. One may gain a hint of and bridge to this congestion of Manhat- what these are when it is said that the tan Island is most significant. In fact, it more far-sighted authorities interested in may be more important even than its the city plan are coming to feel that much more obvious usefulness, that of of the difficulty in the whole complex providing better communications across
220 .
, :-
PROPOSED VICTORY BRIDGE OVER THE HUDSON. ALFRED C. BOSSOM, ARCHITECT. "'S^vv-
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MAP SHOWING CONNECTION BETWEEN THE PROPOSED VICTORY BRIDGE (HERE CALLED "MEMORIAL BRIDGE") AND THE EXISTING BRIDGES OVER THE EAST RIVER. the Hudson River between New York on the railroad. The delays on ferry and and New Jersey. Here one must be lighter, due to congestion, run into hours, guarded in making sweeping statements often even more than a day in a trip back and forth across the as to so complicated a problem, with the river by mo- tor. Thus it is no to changes that the future may bring to it, exaggeration say that the New communities near which cannot all be foreseen. Still, not- Jersey New York in the matter of withstanding the uncertainty as to the Bay are, communication, as far from future, it may be said that these tunnels freight away Manhattan Island as are from Phila- and bridges may be the first step in they the decentralization of Manhattan Island. delphia or even from Baltimore or Boston. Under In other words, there are many ac- present conditions, tivities now carried on in Manhattan, when quick delivery is required, must be made or stored in Man- such as manufacturing, warehousing goods hattan. It is this situation that the and shipping, that could just as well bridge be carried on outside the island, and tunnels should help relieve through provided quick transportation could be providing quick transportation and allow- locate had in and out of the city. Time, in ing business to outside Manhattan transportation, even more than distance, Island. may separate the parts of a city, and to- An idea of these factors will aid in day it often takes more time and costs appreciating some of the features of de- more even where motor transport is sign of the proposed Victory Bridge. The called upon to bring freight from New floor of the bridge is very high above Jersey terminals into New York City the water. This is, of course, required than it does to bring this same freight by the War Department, in order to in-
from Pittsburgh or Buffalo to New York , sure clearance for ocean-going ships.
222 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
But this height has the additional advan- Such a question is indeed pertinent. One tage of allowing the New Jersey end of may acknowledge frankly that unscru- the bridge to rest upon the Weehawken pulous interests have used the sacred heights the continuation of the famous symbolism of the memorial in more than Palisades that stand back about one mile one case as an alluring disguise for a from the line. This has pierhead ridge materialistic business "proposition," that been another natural barrier, parallel to could not succeed otherwise. Certainly, the river and, with it, New York dividing the objection to any utilitarian character City from New Jersey, interrupting com- in a memorial is a sound one. There are, munication. So, by placing the approach however, peculiar cases which meet this to the bridge on its top, the obstacle of objection, and a colossal bridge is one. the ridge is in large part overcome. The This bridge is, besides, intended as a railroad tracks and other types of trans- monument to Victory rather than as a port carried by the bridge may discharge memorial. Who has not felt his directly into the big trunk railroads and kindle as he crossed a into their terminals and classification imagination great bridge over the mouth yards, which are located in the Hacken- suspended of a river at a huge port, its water teem- sack meadows west of the ridge. with from all the harbors On its New York end, the bridge abuts ing great ships of the seven at a point near the western approaches oceans, and little craft; its banks of the three East River bridges referred lined with splendid docks, behind them to, as the map shows. This arrangement towering the skyline of a city ? To a will facilitate traffic between New Jersey myriad of humans that traverse the East and Brooklyn. In time, if such cross- River Bridges each day, the trip is al- traffic should cause too much congestion ways an event which lifts them a little in the streets, it could be accommodated above the materialism of life. Is in short traffic tunnels. One point, how- not this exaltation just the impression ever, concerning the Manhattan end is that a monument of victory should give? not made clear by the sponsors of the There is no better symbol for a me- that what function will be morial than a and bridge ; is, per- tower, the two huge formed by the ten railroad tracks arriv- pylons, designed by Mr. Bossom, that ing this part of New York City? support the suspension cables, are in- From these considerations one gains tended to give the memorial character in- an idea of the complex character of this separable from a bridge of victory one colossal scheme. Other details there are, tower devoted to New York and one to such as a system of warehouses, stores, New Jersey, and to be used for no other commercial buildings, etc., to be con- utilitarian purpose than their function of structed under the approaches of the supporting the cables. Such towers are bridge, at each end. The space in the fit memorials, both in their splendid mon- towers can also be utilized. umental architecture and in their incom- But, we may well ask, will not the me- parable position astride a great river morial ideal be swallowed up in this fast where it enters the sea the portals of scheme of transport and of commerce? a huge city and of two states.
223 CEILING TO LIBRARY-RAVENS COURT PARK, LONDON, W. English Architectural Decoration Text and Measured Draw- ings by Albert E Bullock
Part XV-3. The Adam Period (Continued).
English people have a natural ecuted by Stone were originally designed THEsense of adoration for the prime by Jones. organizer or master mind in any As with Inigo Jones, so it is with Sir movement to the exclusion of many who Christopher Wren and Robert Adam. may have an equal right of recognition. Darley competed with Adam in the exe- This is especially patent when treating of cution of much work of equal merit, and architectural biography. Carter, a contemporary of Chippendale, Tnigo Jones was believed to be the ori- anticipated the style which subsequently ginator of the design for the quadrangle developed into the Adam manner. These of St. John's College. Oxford, until it men culled their information from the was proven that there was no stable evi- same sources, namely, France and Italy, dence his for having visited that city dur- and in particular the publications of re- ing any period of his career. Hubert le searches, designs of men like Cauvet and Sueur was next associated with this work, engravings of that inspired genius Pira- because he was known to have executed nesi. There were also many French deco- the bronze figures in the niches over the rators of the period whose works were colonnade, after which it was stated to known in England, like Bellanger, Ber- have been undoubtedly designed by thault, Krafft and Sombre. Some of Flemish hands, owing to the character their features were directly plagiarized by of the detail. No one, however, appears English decorators, especially the works to have suggested the possibility that the of Berthault and Lemoine le Remain. architect was in point of fact the master Inspired as was Inigo Jones by the mason who built Cornbury, erected the works of Palladio and the writings of porch to St. Mary's Church and the Vitruvius, Robert Adam was in like arches to the physic garden, and who had, manner subject to the influences of Pira- moreover, spent some years in Holland nesi. This engraver was remarkable for prior to the creation of his work-shop in his original compositions of architectural Long Acre, London. This mason, Nicho- subjects, depicting ruins and restoring las Stone, had an agent in Oxford in the them by the medium of his versatile na- person of his cousin, Gabriel Staces, ture. In details his motifs formed the with whom he was in continual commun- fountain head of the Adam period of ication for the supply of material for art, from the ram's head and winged Cornbury and many other works there, griffins to the fluting and beading which including mural tablets erected in the accompanied the Greek honeysuckle or- various colleges, as Merton, Christ nament that adorns most of the work of Church, etc., and had employed Le Sueur the age. on more than one occasion. Yet this was by no means the only Stone carried out his own designs for source of inspiration. There is no doubt additions to churches in Amsterdam when that Raphael's gallery at the Vatican and working with his father-in-law, Pieter the fifteenth century work from the de Keyser, and was quite capable of act- Cathedral at Pavia received more than ing in both capacities. passing notice by the eighteenth century The biographers of Inigo Jones have designers. assumed that all architectural works ex- Some of the unexecuted designs of Sion 225 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
House were conceived with the assistance of Bedford. J. James was the architect of Piranesi, whose grand manner was of Sir Gregory Page's seat at Blackheath, the source from which the general plan Kent, and R. Morris, the author of appears to have been evolved. Thomas Wyndham's House at Hammer- Nor was Adam the only English archi- smith, was associated with the Earl of tect who was directly influenced by the Burlington in the designs for Kirby Hall, works of Piranesi, the publication of Yorkshire, for John Thompson, Esq. which dated from the middle of the cen- These last mentioned buildings were tury. Born in 1720, he published his executed earlier in the century than the .first engravings at the age of 21, and period with which we are now dealing; continued to execute most elaborate work but the publication of the designs in the until his death in 1778, at the rate of one fourth and fifth volumes of "Vitruvius a fortnight. His series of chimneypieces Britannius" were intended to supple- and vases indicate a highly technical ment the first three volumes by Colin skill, both in engraving and design, with Campbell as a guide to architects of the a knowledge of the limitations of the sub- standard works of renown. ject; while his representations of the Books dealing with furniture were various palaces and ancient ruins of his scarce in the eighteenth century. Shera- country are very truthfully portrayed. ton states that he had seen one which Robert Adam and his coterie of Italian was apparently published before Chip- assistants would have immediate access pendale's "Director," which latter ap- to these designs, owing to the friendship peared in 1754. The third edition of
which existed between the two men ; and Thomas Sheraton's book, "The Cabinet- when James Adam visited Italy Piranesi Makers and Upholsterers Drawing was in his fortieth year and at the height Book," in four parts, saw the light in of his career. 1802, and contains many designs by What perhaps is most evident to the Sheraton and G. Terry executed in 1793 student of the history of the styles of in- and 1794. This was followed by the erior decoration is the unanimity with Leeds and Manchester Price Books, the which the vogue developed in far reach- latter appearing in 1810, with drawings ing districts of England. by Shearer, Hepplewhite and Casement; Mention has already been made of after which numerous works were placed John Wood of Bath, who designed Buck- on the market dealing with various feat- land in Berkshire for Sir Robert Throck- ures of the house both modern and morton and Stanlinch in Wiltshire for ancient. In 1834 Shaw published his Mr. Henry Dawkins, apart from his ex- series of measured drawings of Jacobean tensive works in the city of Bath. While houses, which is a standard work of John Carr of York executed Thoresby great value; while J. C. Richardson was Lodge, Nottinghamshire, for the Duke an indefatigable worker in the same of Kingston; Oakland House, Cheshire, period of research. His large collection of for Sir Peter Leicester; Harwood drawings, housed in the Victoria and House, Yorkshire, for Edwin Lascelles, Albert Museum, are finished with great and Constable Barton, Yorkshire, for Sir care and afford a valuable addition to the Marmaduke Wyvill. student's library. Of the lesser known men we have S. In 1879 Charles's "Compiler" was pub- Leadbetter, the author of Newnham, Ox- lished, embracing the work of many of fordshire, the seat of Earl Harcourt, and the better examples appearing in previous with J. Sanderson, who was associated publications, including designs by Per- Smith (probably of Warwick) in the golesi, R. Adam, W. & J. Pain, W. erection of Kertlington Park, Oxford- Thomas and certain French architects, shire, for Sir James Dashwood, and with a view to putting on record in one Stratton Park, Hampshire, for the Duke volume the chief characteristics of the
226
STAIRCASE CEILING BEACON HOUSE, PAINSWICK, GLOUCESTER.
HALL CEILING-BEACON HOUSE, PAINSWICK, GLOUCESTER. 228 -a
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CH1MNEY-PJECB DESIGNED BT PER.GOLB5I 1784-.
CHIMNEYPIECE DESIGNED BY PERGOLESI.. (FOR SCALE, SEE OPPOSITE PAGE.) DESIGN BY PER.GOLESI . /7
PANEL DESIGN BY PERGOLESI. ORNAMENT ^'a PAINTEP PANEL
PANEL DESIGN BY SHERATON. CORNICE AND FRIEZE, ADAM PERIOD, ABOUT 1775. IN VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM.
more notable designers of the eighteenth Georgian rooms in the Victoria and Al- and early years of the nineteenth cen- bert Museum, which have already been tury. illustrated in these pages. Ornament for The illustrations which accompany this ornament's sake would seem to have been article are drawn from the latter work the theme of this era of decoration. and Sheraton's book in order to exhibit The ram's head and husk festoon figure the peculiarities of various artists who in some of the designs of James Gibbs assisted or followed in the wake of as early as 1739, who had among his Robert Adam. vases some hexagonal shaped designs The particular skill of Pergolesi lay in anticipating work which was executed the practicability of most of his designs, similarly during the Adam period. Gibbs together with a certain artistic expres- was in point of fact a particularly skilful sion which his own while from a decorator's standard was peculiarly ; designer ; men like W. Thomas, N. Wallis and W. and although his cartouches are some- & J. Pain carried out the Adam manner what heavy and lack the grace attending with evident zest. Works of the Chip- some earlier examples, his other features pendale era by Ince and Mayhew, and were for the most part applicable to dec- Abraham Swan, although exhibiting a orative use and obviously appropriate to sound knowledge of the orders of archi- the general work of the period of its tecture, gave expression to a piracy of vogue. It was Chambers's publication French cult and plagiaristic tendency in which brought about the pagoda like fin- the incorporation of certain features of ish in China cabinets, sideboards and the .the earlier styles. In dealing with orna- like, as with the ecoineurs or angle "what- ment the play on the husk motifs is no- nots" (as they were called in the Victor- ticeable with the work of Swan, whose ian era). the nineteenth cen- style in execution is very like the two The early years of 234 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. tury witnessed the Greek revival which panels were carved, inlaid or painted Cockerell produced in its fullness, Sir with much elaboration but little soul. John Soane with certain modifications The redeeming features of the cen- and predilections of his own, and Thomas tury were the genius of Alfred Stevens Hope with the addition of Pompeian in decoration and the garden work of and Egyptian features. The phrase, George Devey and Sir Charles Barry. however, was not successful in producing Had it not been for men of this stamp, a new style, each strove with Chinese the century would have been devoid of exactitude to reproduce given objects artistic expression other than what was with the evident result that inventive con- produced by the Gothic revivalists and vention became a lost art, and a very the architects who laid out the West End confused state prevailed that terminated of London on sound principles of town- with the type of work which produced planning on the one hand, and those who the 1851 Exhibition of London and the were actively measuring and executing Paris Exhibition of 1878, when the pan- reproductions of examples of earlier elling became heavily molded and the periods.
MODERN REPRODUCTION OF MIRROR IN STYLE OF INCE & MAYHEW.
235 WINNING DESIGNS in the COMPETITION FOR THE FELLOWSHIP in ARCHITECTURE OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY in ROME
prize designs published here- rial, yet this division is so carefully sub- THEwith display a soundness of con- ordinated that the singleness of impres- ception and a maturity of execu- sion is not weakened. In the other de- tion which one hardly expects to find signs the threefold purpose has brought among young designers who are scarcely something of diffusion. a year out of the architectural schools. The author of this fine conception is Indeed, the first prize de ign challenges a Mr. James Kellum Smith, A. B. Am- comparison with the better work of ex- herst and A. M. University of Pennsyl- perienced architects. The designs picture vania, an American artist of American a "Memorial to a Great Man," who, ancestry and American art education. He though not mentioned by name in the is at present in the office of McKim, Mead program, could be none other than Theo- and White. Of much the same character dore Roosevelt. The monument is planned are the winners of the second and third for a site on an eminence, the site about prizes, Leland King Cardwell, Chicago five hundred feet in diameter and the Art Institute, and Warren L. Hindenach. building not over two hundred feet in its B. S. University of Pennsylvania and it is this largest dimension ; and to commemo- M. S. Harvard. To architects suc- rate in a triple manner services in citizen- cess of native artists may cause no sur- in science in letters. in- in certain ship, and The prise, but it may well be noted terior was to be designed as a composi- art circles outside architecture where the tion of painting, sculpture and architec- myth has grown up that American art ture, with mural paintings and sculpture is possible only if produced by aliens. symbolizing achievements in science and Like many another nineteenth century as- in letters. sumption regarding art, this my h takes and because to A very simple program ; little account of fact, which appears it is so simple, it inspires if the designer be that, no matter how great any art has the a monument of tremen- its power may be, or how cosmopolitan may be dous When such of single impression. unity appeal, it is at the same time a symbol is in beautiful rendered expressively native and local flavor. Unless it is na- form, architecture has the essentials of a tive and local it can hardly be fundamen- How even masterpiece. finely, exquisite- tal and true and vivid and it certainly ly, these qualities can be symbolized as a cannot have the personality of crafts- memorial may be perceived in the illus- manship, which is always racy of a par- trations of Mr. Smith's winning design ticular locality. in the plan, with its one simple, stately The American in Rome in its Academy may chamber ; section, with mural and the excellence of in well be congratulated on sculptural decorations ; and, elevation, this for its in arch- with its splendid classic mass and model- competition fellowship and its feel that ing reminiscent of the Mausoleum of itecture, sponsors may Halicarnassus of Hellenic Greece. It ex- their fine ideal of art education is bearing presses the triple character of the memo- fruit.
236
PLAN-FIRST PRIZE DESIGN, BY JAMES KELLUM SMITH. COMPETITION FOR THE FELLOWSHIP IN ARCHITECTURE OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME. A ELEVATION AND PLAN - SECOND PRIZE DESIGN, BY LELAND KING CARDWELL. COM- PETITION FOR THE FELLOWSHIP IN ARCHITEC- TURE OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME. TAYLOR BOYD,^ Part IX Interiors-Continued
chapter, which is the third one If one would state the whole charac- THISon interiors of the series, con- ter of interior decoration in a sentence, cerns that part of the art of in- one might say that it concerns the funda- teriors known as "interior decoration." mental aesthetic principles common to Interior decoration is the art of furnish- all the arts in their specific application ing and of finishing interiors, and in to the great variety of arts and crafts practice it usually covers the scheme of which are combined in interior design. color and of finish, and the arrangement These principles, under the name of Pure of furniture, hangings, art objects and Design, should be understood, because other decorations. It is true, the ablest they are of vital importance in the designers do not thus restrict the mean- modern world of art. In the confusion ing of the term "interior decoration," but of the arts, which have become so diver- these are still in the minority. Too com- sified, so specialized, so out of touch monly, interior decoration is an art sepa- one with another, drifting away from rated from the rest of the design of the the main current of the stream of art, interior. a great need has arisen to seek again It is not necessary, even if needs of the fundamental principles of beauty. space did not forbid, to cover in these Since beauty can hardly be formulated pages the whole range of interior deco- mathematically, design has been studied ration. The principles of this particu- as the thing nearest to it. Through lar art specialty are now well estab- knowledge of the fundamentals of de- lished or re-established, it is more cor- sign, it is hoped to reestablish art on its rect to say in the United States, both ancient bases of soundness and coher- in actual designs and in excellent writ- ence. This task of formulating basic ings. Consequently, only certain truths principles is now well under way. and, regarding them need be emphasized. in some arts at least, the practical ap- These are, first, the relationship of in- plication of such principles is now well terior decoration, as commonly practised, understood. to the whole art of interiors in the small The progress towards a return to the house certain in art is recent. Mrs. Edith ; second, principles of style normal very and taste in in Decoration good interior decoration ; Wharton her book, "The and, third, the more detailed descrip- of Houses," Scribner's Sons, first pub- tion of the principles of design that lished in 1897, says in her concluding underlie interior decoration in all its chapter, "Many hold that in questions of multitude of arts and crafts. For this taste Gefiihl ist alles; while those who latter, it will be necessary to refer the believe that beyond the oscillations of reader to the better technical writings on fashion certain fixed laws may be dis- interior decoration. As regards the first cerned have as yet agreed upon no two subjects much has already been set definite formula defining their belief. In forth in previous articles of the series. short, our civilization has not yet devel- 243 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. oped any artistic creed so generally rec- His system, with its clear statement and ognized that it may be invoked . . . clear terminology, but slightly altered without risk of misunderstanding." Mrs. since, has stood the test both of theory Wharton, however, excepts architecture and of practice. His theory of pure de- and the allied arts, because in them sign has been recently applied to the art "beauty depends on fitness, and the prac- of interior decoration, and it forms the tical requirements of life are the ulti- basis of the best writings on the subject. mate test of fitness." Twenty-five years If the reader would study these writings has made this latter statement seem al- with discrimination, he should under- most primitive. The former, however, stand something of their basic theory; was altogether prophetic. For, in view and, equally important, since a formula- of Mrs. Wharton's standing in art and tion of theory is only a means to an end, letters, and her wide knowledge of Euro- he might well know its place in the trend pean thought, one must suppose that she of thought of the times. spoke conservatively in thus describing The twentieth century, in its task of the want of basis and of purpose in restoring order in the nineteenth century late nineteenth century art. confusion in art, was forced to analyze When a need is pressing in the world, the causes of disaster. In older, more some one usually arises to meet it. Still, spontaneous times, these principles were it is surprising that, a few years after accepted instinctively, as a matter of ex- Mrs. Wharton's statement, Mr. Denman perience, and were handed down in the Waldo Ross, Lecturer in Fine Arts at form of customs and habits and under- Harvard University, completed a formu- standings, in the lore of art, from gener- lation of principles of design, as the ation to generation, from groups to aesthetic principles common to all the groups, and from artist to artist. arts irrespective of time or conditions. Furthermore, the arts were not so sepa-
LTVING ROOM COTTAGE IN CONNECTICUT. Murphy & Dana, Architects. 244 LIVING ROOM COTTAGE IN CONNECTICUT. Murphy & Dana, Architects.
rate as now, being instead mostly joined Could art be sound in a century given with architecture. Artists were often over to extremes of individualism, of masters of several arts at once. Hence egotism, of an undiscriminating natural- there was no need either to detach a ism in an great ; age that was addicted to a body of abstract principles fundamental spurious cosmopolitanism and to a search to all the arts, nor to distinguish, for- for programmes of philosophical abso- mally between theory and practice in lutes! How could a sense of form and any one art. The unity of brain and of order and of reason, or wholesome- hand and heart was absolute. This situa- ness and spontaneity which are at the tion is the normal one, and the one basis of art be retained in such abnor- which the twentieth century is striving mal conditions ! to reestablish. Already it is far along on But if the culture of the nineteenth the journey towards the goal. century was unfavorable for art, so also To appreciate the recent progress it were the economic and mechanical up- is necessary to understand how far we heavals of the period. These are still in have advanced beyond our starting point process, though some keen observers are in the last century. We now see, I willing to say that present extremes can- think, that the nineteenth century was not continue much longer. What is im- an age of revolution revolution in all portant to realize is, that the existing respects, in thought, politics and in the complication and subdivision of the me- mechanical and economic structure of chanical structure of society cause an society. In such an abnormal setting art insidious complication and subdivision of was bound to be abnormal. How could the thought produced in it. Thought is art flourish in an age of unrelated "pyramided," as well as finance or gov- specialist experimentation and in the ernment. This tendency towards an over- chaos of theories arising therefrom ! complicated, top heavy culture should be 245 LIVING ROOM-HOUSE AT LLOYD'S NECK, L. I. Murphy & Dana, Architects.
critics were counteracted in every possible way, if of side issues, artists and we are once again to attain the normal. usually willing to forsake the worship Thus it is not surprising that, in art, of art for the delights of personal com- in the ninetenth century, design and bat, in upholding the theories of some beauty dropped away until it became no loved master against all comers. more than an incident, or else disap- The present temper is to seek agree- peared altogether. Conflicting views on ment on essentials. But the few survivors art sprung up. Art was a mysterious of the old guard will not surrender, and personal power of extraordinary in- it is not surprising that they who hold a dividuals a divine gift to favored vested interest in the occult and individu- apostles, or, in the opinion of some, a alistic conception of art should resist species of rare mental disease. Art was valiantly any attempt to regain the nor- a matter of reviving historic styles, or of mal. As stated above, the aim is now to the looting of them all under the labels separate from its applications in style and of "eclecticism" or of "cosmopolitanism." technique in the various arts a body of It was the expression of the age or of underlying theory that shall guide the arts the world spirit. Sometimes it was a and that shall harmonize art as a whole. by-product of literature. In architec- This was not so necessary in simpler ture, it was often a phase of mechanics. ages, when these principles were more Thus will find that much of the nine- or less but in you consciously grasped ; now teenth century art criticism is based on our complex times, when the many arts almost any other premises than the es- are so separated and so expertized, it sential ones pure design, and style. seems indispensable. Otherwise the eco- Amid all their disagreements and pursuit nomic pressure of business would de- CORNER OF WRITING ROOM-FARMHOUSE OF MRS. W. M. RITTER, MANCHESTER, VT. MURPHY & DANA, ARCHITECTS. THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. stroy art, by shattering it into bits with in the individual artist. In other words, the principle of the division of labor. the aim of the artist is to interpret these Thus pure design is pure theory, and universal principles of art in terms of therefore it does not take into account his particular problem and of the situa- utility or expression or function or tion in which he finds himself. And, style, or even the technique of any one most necessary above all else, the process art. Though comparisons are risky, it should not be a cold, intellectual, ana- may be said that Pure Design is to art lytical one. Brain and hand and heart
WRITING ROOM FARMHOUSE OF. MRS. W. M. RITTER, MANCHESTER, VT. Murphy & Dana, Architects. what mathematics is to construction, or, should work as one. The artists must to use the comparison favored by Mr. feel as well as think, if his work is to Ross, what the laws of rhythm, harmony be inspired. and counterpoint are to music. Pure de- Since design is not a cold, intellectual, sign is the theory; while the application mechanical process, Americans should be of it lies in the particular art, the style, on their guard against being too self-con- the conditions of time and people and scious in their interest in abstract prin- locality, and, more specifically, in the ciples. The value of these lies rather in conditions of the particular problem and criticism and analysis and in teaching, 248 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
and they become useful in actual de- the best formulation of the principles of sign only when they are as second na- design that the world is seeking seems to ture to the designer. We should recall be that of Mr. Denman Waldo Ross. the example of France who has main- It is contained in his book, "Theory of tained her old art lore and traditions Pure Design." less impaired through the upheavals of Mr. Ross had fully worked it out in the nineteenth century than any other his lectures given in 1904, and subse- nation. Her art is, therefore, more free quent revision has made no great changes
BEDROOM FARMHOUSE OF MRS. W. M. RITTER, MANCHESTER, VT. Murphy & Dana, Architect*.
and imaginative than ours; and, as in it. He has not attempted to apply Americans return to fundamentals, they his principles systematically to any one should seek a like spontaneous expres- art except the art of painting, although sion. The next generation of Ameri- his class teaching abounds in illustra- cans at the age of twenty will easily tions taken from the whole range of art. grasp what their fathers struggled to un- The value of his formulation is proven derstand at forty, and will ask why there by the fact that other men have been was ever such a pother made about it! willing to apply it in their own fields. As I stated in a preceding paragraph, The late Prof. H. Langford Warren 249 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. drew on Mr. Ross in his This volume is akin to freely splendid a textbook ; im- critical teaching of architecture at Har- personal almost as a textbook on geome- vard. in The result, Warren's later try, and, like a geometry, while easily un- teaching, was not essentially different derstood, it leaves the reader to work from that of the great professors of the out the practical applications for him- licole-des- Beaux-Arts, except that, as self. Thus one cannot hope to master
DETAIL OF DINING ROOM-RESIDENCE OF MRS. ARTHUR CAHN, HARTSDALE, N. Y. Alfred Hopkins, Architect. might be expected because of the greater all its aspects in a night's reading. Much strength of the background of art in study, constant observation, and, even France, the Paris teaching was the more better, practice in exercises in design are imaginative and the more spontaneous. desirable. This is particularly true of All this lengthy statement of prin- principles of color. Principles and prac- ciples of design, and their place in the tice of color, in most arts, still offer the modern art world, will aid the reader in toughest problem for the designer. It any study of writings on interior decora- was the sense of color, along with the tion. It is well to acquaint oneself with sense of design, that became so atro- this background at its source, Ross' phied in the nineteenth century. volume in Pure Design, referred to above. When the significance of Pure Design 250 LIVING ROOM-RESIDENCE OF MRS. ARTHUR CAHN, HARTSDALE, N. Y. Alfred Hopkins, Architect.
DINING ROOM RESIDENCE OF MRS. ARTHUR CAHN, HARTSDALE, N. Y. Alfred Hopkins, Architect. 251 LIVING ROOM MANTEL DARRAGH PARK, ROSLYN, L. I. Peabody, Wilson & Brown, Architects. is grasped, and its place in the modern pages. Here, clearly, is another source movement to put art back into the arts, of confusion; here are another conflict- the next concern is how soundly the ing sets of principles to be reconciled. writers on interior decoration apply its Since the cosmopolitan influence brings principles in that particular art. into question the last great factor in In reading the best recent American style not hitherto considered, the whole works on interior decoration, it would matter of style may be set forth com- seem that the writers had succeeded ad- pletely. mirably in applying the fundamental Style which is much the same thing principles of art in the technique of in- as good taste is the background of art terior decoration, but had not been so traditions of a people, the stream of ex- successful in their application in the mat- perience that flows from the past, ter of style and good taste. They are through the present, into the future. The sound up to the point where they con- character of this background is always demn period art in its strict historical changing, as its principles are being in- interpretation, but they place too much terpreted anew to fit existing conditions emphasis on international and cosmopoli- of place and time and problem. Some tan influences. They do not consider of these conditions change rapidly; national characteristics others evolve while of them enough, and they slowly ; some overlook entirely the fundamental geo- never change. These factors may be graphical factors in style those of light, classified as those of nature geographi- that climatic as racial ones as cosmo- color, atmosphere and landscape, cal, ; ; mentioned in these international as social as were previously politan and ; ; 252 LIVING ROOM DARRAGH PARK, ROSLYN, L. I. Peabody, Wilson & Brown, Architects. economic and mechanical; and as those soundly established art, the international of fashion. The geographical and cli- influences will be quickly absorbed into matic ones are geological causes; they the native stream, receiving a distinctive are, therefore, eternal for man's pur- native stamp. As to the mechanical fac- poses, and they will always exert a de- tors in style, some are nearly changeless, of the like the of materials termining influence on the style use regional building ; art of a people. They vary in different while others are not, such as the me- regions of the earth's surface. Racial chanical part of the house. Of the eco- factors in style national temperament nomic and social factors, some of these, vary also by regions, and they vary slow- too, change slowly or but little, by cen- time. is to turies while others ly by That say, Americans and generations ; vary will always be American in their art, in the space of a few years. Then, lastly, not Englishmen or Frenchmen; but, as in this classification of factors of style the American race grows older, or at cer- and good taste come the evanescent tain times is more luxuriously inclined, ideas of fashion which vary from year and at others more austere, following to year. changes in its social structure, it will Thus style consists of a multitude of its slightly modify style from century to factors : some permanent, others variable century and from generation to genera- and varying differently each from the tion. This racial factor is probably the other. None of them can safely be one that produces periods in style. Style ignored. The problem of the artist is the will also correspond to cosmopolitan in- decision of exactly how to apply the fluences from time to time; but, in any theoretical principles of pure design in 253 BREAKFAST PORCH-DARRAGH PARK, ROSLYN, L. I. Peabody, Wilson & Brown, Architects.
any one art, in a specific case, in terms and now they may well settle down to their of style and good taste. own style traditions for a while, their It seems evident that the factor of minds limbered up with new ideas, and with the style, which I have called the cosmopoli- memory of a gay experi- tan influence, is only one item in a com- ence to stimulate their imagination on the plex series. It cannot be substituted for path of progress. the whole, yet that ninetenth century Except for this exaggeration of the still factor of practice of so doing causes con- internationalism in style, the fusion today. Some American designers best books on interior decoration are ex- still follow it. How unsound this con- cellent indeed. Perhaps those of a more ception is may easily be realized by re- serious technical nature are Frank Alvah ferring to the art history of France. Parsons' "Interior Decoration, Its Prin- The influence of the Renaissance, of the ciples and Practice," 1913; and Harold baroque, and later of the Chinese and Donaldson Eberlein's "Practical Book of classic art upon the Franch, has been Interior Decoration," 1919. It is not my carefully traced; but all critics agree intention to review either of them here, that these influences were immediately beyond pointing out certain characteris- absorbed, and the art of France always tics. The two books are somewhat paral- remained French. For instance, even at lel in plan, being roughly divided into its height, the baroque was in France a two parts: one dealing with the applica- French baroque, not Italian baroque. tion of the principles of pure design to Consequently, while American de- the technique of interior decoration; the signers have the whole world to draw other covering a historical survey of the from, they will make a great mistake if historic periods and of the international they adopt internationalism as a fetish. influences. Thus the two books supple- In fact, American artists have been on ment each other admirably. Mr. Par- of sons states a prolonged spree cosmopolitanism, general principles very clearly ; 254 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. but in his historical survey his chapter art, it might be better to say, of the third on early American interiors is as super- rate show window. An exception to the ficial as it well could be, since it is rather mediocre character of many popu- largely based on the false conception lar books on interior decoration is "The that the early American interior was a Effective Small House," by Lillian somewhat crude formula of mahogany Green, which contains valuable sugges- furniture contrasted against white walls. tions on practical and economical Mr. Eberlin's knowledge of American methods of decorating the small house. art is much sounder, for it is a field that The author is to be congratulated on he knows well. I prefer Mr. Parsons the merit of her illustrations. summary of historical periods in essen- It remains to consider how these gen- tials; but I like Mr. Eberlein's better eral works on interior decoration may be in details. The latter has a better col- applied in terms of the small house. This lection of illustrations, though here and is not a difficult matter. Economy rules there in them are to be noted the cur- out elaboration in most cases, and small rent faults of interior decoration, par- dimensions forbid the use of the bulky ticularly that one of large, fat rectangles furniture and decorations sometimes used beside delicate flowing curves and found in large houses. The type of de- complex forms. However, from my own sign and factors of style also do not experience, I know how difficult it is to suit this kind of decoration. Almost au- obtain good photographs of designs that tomatically, therefore, the small house is illustrate specific principles, yet which limited to the small, compact, practical in all other respects are faultless. kinds of furniture of the eighteenth cen- There are a dozen or more recent writ- tury, which were developed in France, ings on interior decoration, besides scores England, and also in America. Of these, of a more special character on furni- French types with their subtle curves in ture, textiles, ceramics, etc. The latter their pure form cannot be turned out class can hardly be considered here, and successfully, except by the most artistic only a few words may be spared for handworkers. Thus, for furniture that the former. Miss Edith Wharton's book is practical and compact, and at the same was, with Miss Elsie de Wolfe's, "The time beautiful, the decorator of the small House in Good Taste," 1913, a fore- house can hardly do better than to work runner of the volumes of Mr. Eberlein on the lines of the noted English de- and of Mr. Parsons. Each contains much signers of the late eighteenth century- sound wisdom, but neither attempts Sheraton, Chippendale, Heppelwhite and a technical discussion of principles. Of the Brothers Adam; and also of the the other books, most of them are popu- slightly earlier type of design, less ex- lar like the two just mentioned, but, un- quisitely classic, but still finely propor- like them, are too apt to be superficial. tioned and of much charm and pic- One notes in them the error of attempt- turesqueness, of homelike quality. These ing to lay down specific rules and for- latter may also be better rendered by ma- mulae as principles. The illustrations chinery than the more refined types, be- are often questionable, with designs that cause of their simple rectangular shapes, are sometimes crude examples of the turned legs or spindles, which require only mechanics of design, unclothed by any a little hand finish, particularly, to soften artistry. Thus they display that bad de- the hard edges made by the machine. vice of the modern decorator, the ex- One may only mention the great op- cessive use of groupings of minor ob- portunity of house furnishings in the jects in the shape of books, pictures, textiles, ceramics, metal work and art etc., around an axis. Except as part of objects of all kinds. In addition to their a formal architectural motive, such as a own reviving household arts, Americans mantelpiece, this practice is not design, have the whole world to draw upon, and but a substitute for it. It is the formula there is no reason why they should not of the show window; though, to judge borrow freely from the international in- from some recent developments of that fluences of the day, in the modern love 255 DINING ROOM RESIDENCE OF SAMUEL R. OUTERBRIDGE, CENTRE ISLAND, OYSTER BAY, N.Y. Electus D. Litchfield & Rogers, Architects. of grace and vivacity and form, and of consciously, it may be all the better art. cheerful glowing color. But they should To quote the concluding sentence of Mrs. remember that are Americans at Wharton's book, of her now they prophecy" the same time. Their plunder, even being fulfilled by Mr. Ross: . . . when gathered from all lands of the much that is empiric, much that is con- earth, should be wrought into a har- fused and extravagant, will give way be- monious pattern of design in form and fore the application of principles based color and light, in the expression of on common sense and regulated by the American style and good taste, in the laws of harmony and proportion." unity of a picture. The work of our best designers proves that this is their (This paper concludes Mr. Boyd's conception, whether consciously so or series, published in consecutive issues not, it does not matter. Indeed, if un- from November, 1919, to June, 1920.)
256