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main a standard reference work for many years to come. The interest thus aroused was followed by the Institute considering plans for the beautification of the national Capitol, resulting in the appointment by Congress of a commission consisting of Daniel H. Burnham, of Chicago; Chas. F. McKim, of New York, and Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr., of Boston, to visit the most beautiful cities of Europe with a view to studying what has been done abroad, which might suggest a line of action to be adopted in the improvement of Washington.

The League is an annual referendum of enthusiasts, and scrupulously avoids any tendency towards more complete federation.

While having declared itself as opposed to allying itself with the Institute, it is the intention to establish a community of interests rather than to waste its energies and prestige by opposing any of the well-considered policies of the older body.

"Any art worth the name must be evolved by the demands of contemporary society.”—Brooks Adams.

THE

The Philadelphia Convention HE third annual convention of the Architectural League of America was entertained by the T-Square Club from May 23d to 25th inclusive. Business sessions were conducted nearly continuously, taking place in the gallery of the Art Club, at the University of Pennsylvania (where a luncheon was served in the School of Architecture by the Seniors in cap and gown), on the steamer to New Castle, Del., and at the farewell banquet in Horticultural Hall; considered by many the most important session of all. As usual, the enthusiasm was sustained to the last, and every one returned home stimulated to higher endeavor and more steadfastly devoted to architecture as an art.

Mr. Claude Fayette Bragdon, of Rochester, was the first to arouse the convention. His able paper, "Mysticism and Architecture," illustrated by rapid sketches on the blackboard, was constantly interrupted by applause. It was supplemented by an equally brilliant essay entitled,

"The Relation of Color to Form in Architectural

Design," by Prof. Newton A. Wells. The reading of reports from different clubs provoked warm discussion and a valuable interchange of ideas. Mr. Chas. F. Caffin's address, "Intellectual Honesty in Architectural Design," was right from the shoulder, and not altogether appreciated, fair and just as many of his criticisms were. In praising the engineer to the disparagement of the archi

tect, he offered Mr. Cass Gilbert an opportunity to popularize himself, which the latter was not slow to seize. He showed that structural difficulties, often requiring the services of an engineer to solve, do not lessen the architect's power and responsibility, but rather increases his command by requiring more executive ability and greater broadmindedness, concluding by asserting that the engineer would always be the servant of the architect. Mr. Clarence Blackall, of Boston; Mr. John Calvin Stevens, of Portland, Me.; Mr. Julius Harder, of New York, and Mr. Sylvester Baxter, of Boston, each added much to the success of the reunion, and contributed many new and stimulating ideas, which have been incorporated in the official report.

We can advance ourselves neither by ostentation nor by imitation.”—Brooks Adams.

THE

A Seal

'HE emblem of the Washington Club is much the best design of its kind yet adopted.

Its local significance, portrayed by the dome of the Capitol and an American note suggested by the spread-eagle and shield, are by no means the best qualities it possesses. In the first place it composes well, although no better than Mr. Wilson Eyre's figure on the T-Square Club seal ; and secondly, it has a vigorous architectural character which is eminently appropriate. The suggestion of a United States shield is given a clever Ionic touch, while the eagle's wings have been conventionally treated; likewise, an artistic band frames the whole, and yet without confusing the well-defined top and bottom of the design.

We regret we do not know the designer's name, but are inclined to think it originated from the same hand that drew the clever cartouches surmounting a number of recently-erected postoffice buildings, many being illustrated as decorative headings in this volume.

"The soul of art is character."-Prof. Huber Herkomer.

Mural Paintings

MR. Abbey has added to his series of mural paintings in the Boston Public Library; except for these and a few notable decorations in private houses and hotels little has been done during the past year in the United States. But abroad, especially in France, many able painters have been kept busy decorating interiors. In fact, high art is now and again used as an advertising medium; and so great a man and so great a man as Alphonse de Neuville,

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recently championed the cause of artistic street signs and symbols. For years, in the Gare St. Lazare, many small oil-paintings, neatly framed, have been displayed, illustrating the beauties of the country through which the railway passes; but it has remained for the Paris, Lyons & Mediterranean Railway to make the mural decorations in its new station "one of the sights of Paris."

Travelers do not usually associate railway stations with ideas of art and luxury, yet one finds them in both the new railway stations of the French metropolis. In the Gare de Lyons there are two palatial salles de buffet, the walls and ceilings of which have been decorated, and some twenty-seven well-known French artists, including such names as Flameng, Maignan, Genex, Rosset, Granger, Billotte, Allègre, Burnand, Montenard, Olive, Carl Rosa, Latouche and St. Pierre. The range of subject selected is varied, including landscapes and conventionalized painting symbolizing Paris, Monte Carlo, Nice, etc., in allegories representing characteristic phases of life in each place.

Perhaps some day our own people may be appealed to in an equally dignified and vivid. manner; if so, may it prove a profitable experiment.

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THE

The T-Square Club

'HE T-Square Club has done itself great credit under the presidency of Mr. George B. Page. The syllabus of the year is the third and best of the three in which a series of related programs have constituted the year's work in monthly competition. In the first an attempt was made to cultivate more logical thought by relating the problems to one another, and a domestic establishment was designed taking up house, garden, stable and accessories one by one, terminating in a general review which involved a bird's-eye perspective of the entire property. It was the first scholarship competition, and was won by Mr. Lloyd Titus. The next year a wider range of subjects was determined upon, and a series of entrances, including an entrance to a country church, to a landed estate, to a manufacturing establishment, to the Nicaragua Canal, to a cemetery, to a public park and to a boulevard were chosen, and the designs submitted showed gratifying results. Mr. Wetherill P. Tront proved the winner. The six problems for the present season

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bear upon a series of subjects more or less sociological, devoted exclusively to civic conditions and municipal embellishment. In these and along other lines the President has taken up the lead established by his predecessor, Mr. Adin B. Lacey, so that the Club has more than once made itself felt in public affairs. Its recently issued catalogue, edited by Mr. Maurice Feustman, again leads in novelty and resourcefulness, and once more includes some trenchant editorials worth reading. The Club is also holding a series of private exhibitions of individual illustrators' work, which thus far have proved interesting and stimulating. Having entertained the third annual convention of the Architectural League of America the present administration will go down in club history as one of the most eventful in its long and useful

career.

"The style of steel and glass and clay products, originating in France and England, developed principally in France and Germany, adopted throughout the civilized world, and just beginning to assume characteristic decorative expression— the only true style of the century."-R. J. Coolidge, Jr.

THE

Club Catalogues

'HE architectural press has been unanimous in trying to frown down the now frequent practice of publishing a catalogue in conjunction with annual exhibitions. While there may be reasons for their unanimity other than the invasion of the advertising field, there is no denying that these publications, amateurish as many are, have been a great force in stimulating local endeavor. And, further, the rivalry which has been thus engendered is most clearly evident in the friendly interchange of publications and the eagerness with which they are studied.

While it is not our purpose to discuss the right and wrong of soliciting advertisements, we should like to say a word upon the subject of purely money-making catalogues, where a lowstandard book is produced and where the spirit of rivalry and progressiveness is altogether out of proportion to the amount of space devoted to advertising. Certainly, when one of the most prosperous and largest architectural societies of the United States sends out its circulars, requesting architects to submit drawings to their Catalogue Committee for consideration and possible publication, requiring that the freight shall be paid by the exhibitor; and when such a society makes a practice of selling the cuts to the exhibitor after they have been used (when it is the custom of other societies to give them to him), we are inclined to think that the virtue of the architectural club has been lost, and that the

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architectural press is right in condemning the practice. It must be remembered, however, that the catalogue came into existence as a souvenir and remains the financial agent making exhibitions possible.

Thus the usefulness of the exhibition must be considered, as the abolition of the one means the abolition of the other. So long as the money derived from advertising is devoted exclusively to exhibition purposes, to the improvement of the exhibition and catalogue, to the importation of drawings from foreign countries, to the securing of lecturers to help educate those interested in the advancement of architecture, it remains a legitimate occupation for the architect, which none will deny. But when a society becomes arrogant and unmindful of its obligations, we are inclined to believe that the practice is not to the advancement of the profession.

The first catalogue issued by the Detroit Architectural Club was a work of art, from the printers' standpoint, and one of the most fully illustrated that has yet appeared.

Last year the Washington Club issued the most sumptuous volume we have yet seen; and for two years the influential Chicago Club has brought out a volume without advertisements! This has been done by soliciting aid from "patrons

first architectural exhibition of any size ever held in the Dominion, and, owing to its enterprise, was the first on this Continent to show a complete set of drawings for the buildings of the Pan-American Exhibition.

Alert to the requirements of the day, and wishing to be among the leaders in matters of municipal art, it was instrumental in bringing about a couple of largely attended lectures on the subject. It has adopted a scheme of education which is calculated to interest the students and draughtsmen of Toronto, and in other ways is rivaling the Ontario Association, whose handsome quarters in the same city indicate the existence of still further organized architectural endeavor.

It is gratifying to find the work of the League spreading beyond the borders of the States, and to be able to look forward to a hearty greeting at the next convention which is to be held over the border under the auspices of this small but valiant club.

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whose names as such are printed in the volume, WE quote from the facile pen of Mr. Raffles

and in that many architects are among the contributors it is evident that its usefulness is recognized. Furthermore, it should be stated that during the past two years the Chicago catalogue has expressed a more consistent and tenacious adherence to the underlying principles governing local endeavor than any of its rivals. In short, it may be said that an interest attaches to these volumes that the regular periodicals can never usurp so long as they continue to represent the individual efforts and unselfish aspirations of the serious, hard-working, aspiring younger element of the profession.

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Davison, editor of the British Architect: "The last year of the nineteenth century has not been in anywise remarkable so far as British architecture is concerned. A number of important building projects have been initiated, it is true, but they did not appear likely to lead to any striking development in architectural art. The designs submitted for the frontages of the eastern portion of the Strand, as it is to be, when the new thoroughfare to Holborn is opened out, by no means realized the expectations that were formed when the names of the architects invited to send in designs were made known. The conditions were scarcely favorable, perhaps, and the time allowed for their preparation was somewhat short. But, anyhow, none of the invited architects rose to the height of a great occasion, and the opportunity for a fine architectural development was lost.".

We would add that the designs we have seen for this much-needed improvement are even more disappointing than the proposed architectural treatment of the Victoria Memorial commented upon elsewhere. We will not, however, dispute the following, though our own domestic architecture is second to none in compactness, and often rivals that of England in its home-like charm:

"England now stands easily first amongst all nations in regard to her domestic architecture, and

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As City Architect he made himself felt and added a dignity to his office not often equaled. Likewise, Mr. Cass Gilbert has a way of asserting himself before a committee that is as enlightening to them as it is benefiting to the cause of higher standards in architectural practice.

The fear of offending is unreasonable if an architect is simply standing up for his rights; and the more direct he is in securing them the more he will be respected. To refuse to do work he is not to be paid for, and to ask for extra compensation when outside work is thrust upon him, may occasionally lead to a disagreement; if so, let him console himself by remembering, that "you cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs."

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WE wish to enter a vigorous protest against ing noteworthy and important rules to facilitate

the obliging architect-against the man who is ever ready to give gratuitous professional advice and sometimes prepares expensive drawings for nothing in order to interest possible clients. We wish to condemn the man who gives his time to the adjustment of legal difficulties without being paid for it; who works early and late selecting and arranging furniture and decorations for clients who pay him only a five per cent. commission on the cost of the bare structure, and we wish to rebuke the timid architect who is foolish enough to pay the specialistheating, lighting, sanitary or structural expert, whatever he may be-who may have to be consulted, from his own commission. It is wrong. It demoralizes the profession and is belittling to the architect.

Why should an architect give an opinion, on which often hinges a vast expenditure, for nothing, when a lawyer or a doctor receives a large fee for no more important advice? Surely, the architect's experience and training are as costly and as laborious for him to obtain as that of other professional men, and since the service rendered is as great, it should be as fully paid for.

It is not so many years since Mr. Daniel H.

the working of the Treasury Act under which government competitions will be held in the future :

(1) That the jury of award should be chosen first of all; should have the programme of the projected building submitted to it, so as to become thoroughly familiar with its details, and be able to make suggestions of value, and should have a voice in the selection of the list of competitors.

(2) That the jury should be paid something for the time it actually spends in its work, besides its traveling and other necessary expenses, which it already receives.

(3) That the jury visit the site of the projected building in every instance, so as to be the better able to judge of the peculiar adaptation of the plans to the surroundings.

"It is full time for us to say with Michelangelo, We go our way alone.' It is for this purpose I

take it that American art was called into existence, and we must let no criticism deter us, and no past fetter us."— William Ordway Partridge.

Burnham had occasion to give the then Secretary WE

of the Treasury a very plain talking to on these subjects, and to his bold stand we owe much of the increasing prestige of the profession.

In Mr. Edmund M. Wheelwright, Boston has a champion of professional rights to be proud of.

Pure Design

E are glad the term pure design, meaning unaffected, straightforward, and simple design, has been used so much of late in the discussion of shams, artifices and the florid slang of architecture generally, since the counterfeit and he real thing cannot be brought face to face too

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often. Moreover, the term suggests a seeking after knowledge and a desire for something better than what we have been accustomed to, that is most encouraging. It suggests a consciousness gradually dawning in the architectural mind that there is an inspiring present demanding visible expression, and a gradual awakening to the fact that while the study of the work of the past goes far in all arts and sciences to suggest, to stimulate and to encourage the present," yet such study is elementary and superfluous in comparison with reliable contemporaneous observation. While art growth represents evolution rather than revolution, the now frequent use of the phrase pure design indicates that the styles of the past are being regarded as mere steppingstones, which should never be confounded with bed-rock principles.

The living architecture of the twentieth century has comfort and the amelioration of the condition of the people as its strongest characteristics. The impulse of fraternity is the romance of modern life. Therefore, design with distinction and taste, bearing these truths in mind, and the result will be neither archeological nor spurious adapta

tions.

We must hope that the living vigor of humanity will break through the excessive monotony of modern arrangements, and assert itself in new forms."—Madame Belloc.

Reliable Observation

IS S there a national sentiment seeking a visible expression in the United States? Or have we failed to assimilate our foreign population so that as a people we have no ideals? These questions must suggest themselves to every artist's mind, even if they remain unanswered in his work. Possibly, the theme is too big for the average artist to grasp; or perhaps he does not try to. However this may be, it is strange there is no architect whose work recalls early American history-the sturdy, pure and simple life of our forefathers-as Howard Pyle's does in illustration. To be sure, we have a lot of producers of new old Colonial which sometimes pleases without giving intellectual delight, but being neither true to the past nor to the present, it is hardly worthy of consideration.

In our best modern attempts our work is usually tainted by some foreign affectation, as we are often afraid to let a straightforward piece of construction speak for itself; and in covering it with meaningless decoration we suppress its native eloquence and invest it with mockery.

Marvelous discoveries and new triumphs have become such ordinary archievements that we fail

to appreciate the wonder of the Marconi signal system and the new sight of the X-ray machine. We are slow to observe the significance of these progressive changes. And when Mr. Marconi announces that his wireless system requires a receiving station two or three hundred feet high, the architect sees only a monstrous scaffold by the sea, and does not think of how his Venetian confréres decorated the flag-standards in St. Mark's Square; nor does it occur to him that these receiving stations must become conspicuous beacons and, in time, perhaps, the great wayside monuments of the world. But it is not necessary

to look into the future. If our architects could only see the present clearly they would be doing better work.

Aside from the esthetic and sentimental viewpoint they are slow to grasp the practical requirements of an everyday problem.

Ignoring those who wilfully misrepresent history and blindly subordinate the function of a structure to produce a capricious effect, there are many honest designers who, through a lack of ability to observe and assimilate correctly, fail utterly in meeting actual requirements.

Every problem is a new one.

The designer who begins by making a list of all its requirements, arranging them in order and classifying them in a systematic manner, from time to time noting the slightest deviation from any similar problem he has ever attempted to solve, and who gives his undivided attention to the data thus obtained, without muddling his brain with foreign ideas, will soon train himself architecture when he learns he can rely upon to see clearly, and will gain a new confidence in study and observation.

An imaginative person will not only meet all the requirements, but he will evolve an expression to interpret them.

What was at first difficult puzzling and without art possibilities, has only to be analyzed and reduced to perfect orderliness for the true artist to find in it a counterbalancing note of beauty. It is always there, if but seldom found.

If it is not presumptious, we should like to offer a query for the consideration of American architects. Is not artistic form just as much a peculiarity of race as is language?

Are American architects more likely to express themselves truly and freely in styles borrowed from France and Germany and Italy than their authors would be if they wrote their books in French, German and Italian? An American style may come, but it will not come because America is a great industrial country with a vast population. It will come when there is a body of the population possessed with the creative artistic spirit."-The Spectator.

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