Subscription Rates per year, 50 cents, in advance. Special Club Rate for five subscriptions, $2.00.
A well-selected collection of foreign photographs has come to be as necessary and invariable a feature in a well-equipped architect's office as good drawing instruments or as Vignola's treatise on the Roman Orders. But unfortunately a really satisfactory collection of photographs is seldom within the reach of more than a small proportion of the architects who could use them to advantage. This is partly on account of the expense of a good collection, as photographs can hardly be bought for less than twenty-five cents each, and partly on account of the difficulty of finding a desirable stock from which to make selections on this side of the Atlantic. Nearly all of the most valuable collections have been gathered together abroad by the owners and are the result of gradual accumulation, probably extending over years of travel, and representing no small investment of money.
Such a collection, it is needless to say, is not within the grasp of the young and struggling draughtsman, but he, of all others, would profit most by possession and use of such a treasure if it could be placed in his hands. It would help to form and direct his tastes, making him familiar with the masterpieces of the past, and would furnish a basis for comparison of the current work about him.
Of course a draughtsman in any of the larger offices will have certain opportunities to study and work from the collection in the office library. This is a valuable privilege, but it is only open to a few out of the many draughtsmen in the country, and is not to be compared in its resulting benefits to the actual possession of even a very much smaller collection.
It is the purpose of the BROCHURE SERIES to place in the hands of draughtsmen a most carefully selected series of photographic reproductions, chosen both for their educational value and their usefulness as practical reference material for everyday work. This can be done at one fiftieth the cost of ordinary photographs, and thus be easily within the reach of any draughtsman.
No attempt will be made to follow any systematic arrangement of the subjects presented, although it will be frequently found advisable, as in the present issue, to group a number of subjects of more or less related character. The main result to be sought for is the presentation of the greatest amount of the most valuable material in the most available shape, and at the least cost. The possibility of realizing this ambitious purpose remains to be demonstrated. It need only be said that this initial number is put forward as an earnest of the work to follow.
A most important feature in recent educational work as applied to architecture is to be found in the formation of a number of classes, or ateliers as they are called, modelled in the main after those in Paris. They are all formed with the purpose of furnishing instruction in those elements of academic design which are unattainable in the routine experience of office practice. The details of arrangement for accomplishing this purpose vary somewhat in the different ateliers. We believe the first to be started was the one connected with the office of Messrs. Carrère & Hastings in New York. Here a limited number of students, both young men and young women, are received, and as a return for the instruction given them are expected to render such assistance in the regular work of the draughting-room as they can. This service is exactly similar to the "niggering," as it is called, required by long-established custom of the younger men at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at Paris, which is one of the most valuable features of the school work. In Paris by this method the younger students have an opportunity to come in personal and intimate contact with those more advanced, and have the benefit of working on larger and more important work than they are capable of undertaking unaided. In the new atelier a problem in design is given to the class, thus more than ordinarily equipped for the work before him.
His work while abroad was systematic, well directed, and untiring, and no one of the succeeding scholars has labored to better advantage or accomplished more than he, although each in turn has had the example and experience of his predecessors as a guide and stimulus to increased endeavor. Mr. Blackall's time was devoted largely to travel, together with the sketching and measuring of important work.
Since his return he has built up a successful and varied practice.
As an active member of the Boston Society of Architects and the first president of the Boston Architectural Club, he has done much to advance the best interests of the profession, both within its ranks and in its relations to the public. To nothing so much as to his faithful labors can the success of the Architectural Club be laid. He has made it the largest and most effective organization of its kind in the country, and the draughtsmen of Boston have every reason to be thankful to him for his unselfish devotion to their interests.
He has, for several years, been the permanent chairman of the Committee of the Boston Society of Architects, appointed to administer the Rotch Scholarship, and through his earnest work the opportunities open to its holders are being constantly increased.
(To be continued.)
Club Notes.
The youngest of the architectural societies of the country is the Cleveland Architectural Club. It was organized in November last with a membership of fifteen, which number has been rapidly growing and bids fair to grow much further. In this instance, as has been the case in all the other large cities where similar clubs have been formed, it is the better class of draughtsmen who have felt the need of an organization that would bring them together socially, and give an opportunity for organized study and mutual improvement; and it is a most encouraging symptom of the generally diseased condition of the public mind in relation to architecture that these clubs have become so numerous in the last few years. Aside from the direct influence upon its own membership, the manifestation of a progressive and aggressive spirit cannot help provoking curiosity and discussion outside, if it accomplishes nothing further. It is somewhat surprising that with the unusually active interest which Cleveland has always evinced in matters relating to art, such a movement has not been started before. We shall have occasion before long to refer more in detail to this new and flourishing society.
The Illinois Chapter of the American Institute of Architects announces the second annual competition for a gold medal, to be open to members of the Chicago Architectural Club who are not practicising architects of over two years' standing. The problem is the design for a memorial building for the study of botany, zoology, and mineralogy, and is to be finished on April 29.
The Chicago Architectural Club mingles work and play in a thoroughly Bohemian fashion. A recent invitation card bid its members to attend a "Rip-Snorter at the Club House," stating that "provisions and provisos would be provided and Frou Frous be on tap." The exact significance of this cabalistic description is known only to the members and their guests. The same card announced that the new Constitution and By-Laws would be finally voted upon at the same meeting, and further announced the conditions of a forthcoming sketch competition. Things move rapidly in Chicago.
The Chicago Architectural Club will hold its eighth annual exhibition of works of architecture and the allied arts at the Art Institute for two weeks beginning May 23. For further particulars, address John Robert Dillon, secretary, 274 Michigan Avenue, Chicago.
The Buffalo Chapter of the A.I.A. will hold its second annual exhibition in the Art Gallery, Library Building, in connection with the exhibition of the Buffalo Society of Artists, from March 18 to 30. For further particulars, address J.H. Marling, 15 Morgan Building, Buffalo.