:i!:gJ!J8rj^ ' ' ARCH R 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 a i ^ H H W > u W " H W " ^ . O !5 ^ w o to Q H FLOOtt. P J. A M 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 -.w. o W >- O a j 1 ,. 55 Q w <2; w. STAIR HALL "PIDGEON HILL," RESIDENCE OF MEREDITH HARE, ESQ., HUNTINGTON, L. I. CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT. A SECLUDED SPOT "PIDGEON HILL," RESIDENCE OF MEREDITH HARE, ESQ., HUNTINGTON, L. I. Charles A. Pratt, Architect. 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.