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Until the present year no American student of architecture has ever been honored with the diploma of the Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but on June 14 the degree of the school was conferred on three Americans—Messrs. J. Van Pelt, J. H. Friedlander, and D. Hale. The first diplomas were awarded in 1869, before that date there being no official recognition of the completion of any required course in the school, except the awards in the various concours, all leading up to the Grand Prize of Rome.
There are a number of Americans now in Paris who intend to present theses for the diploma, and doubtless other awards will follow those already made. Any present or former student of the school who has reached the required standard in his work is allowed to submit a thesis in competition for the diploma.
At the entrance examination of the Ecole this year sixteen American students of architecture were received. Last year there were but eight, which up to that time was the largest number recorded.
The Chicago Architectural Club has given evidence this year of very great activity, and its work has been directed in many channels and with good effect. Its lectures, classes, competitions, smokers, Bohemian nights, receptions, ladies' nights, expeditions to places of interest, and finally its exhibition of last month have all been excellently chosen to instruct, interest, and amuse its members, and incidentally promote the general cause of architectural education. The long list of attractions has held the interest of its members without flagging. In the classwork it has had the services and advice of the best and most competent men connected with the profession; and in all directions it is to be congratulated upon the good work done.
Books.
Æsthetic Principles: By Henry Rutgers Marshall, M. A. Macmillan & Co. 1895. 201 pages. $1.25.
Probably many readers of The Brochure Series have struggled as has the writer (and possibly some are still in an unsettled state of mind in consequence) over the abstruseness of the current works upon the philosophy of art, trying to find some obscure foundation on which to build for themselves a theory of æsthetics. To such, and to all others who have any wish to reason connectedly on art matters, Mr. Marshall's little book will be interesting and instructive reading. It is remarkably clear and understandable even to a reader with no special training in metaphysical reasoning, and in point of literary style and carefully considered use of language it is a genuine treat. Its object is to explain, in as direct and simple language as possible, the nature and origin of our ideas of the beautiful, and the logical deduction to be made from the premises, which will guide us in the practice of the fine arts, or the production of beauty of some special type.
As Mr. Marshall is an architect, many of his illustrative examples are drawn from architecture, and the book on this account is especially interesting to architects.
Rational Building: Being a translation of the article "Construction" in the Dictionnaire Raisonnè de l'Architecture Française of M. Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. By George Martin Huss, Architect. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1895. 367 pages. Illustrated. $3.00.
This book, although confined entirely to the consideration of the French Gothic, will be found of great value to students. Many of our readers are of course familiar with it in its original form, while others may have followed the translation as it has appeared from time to time in the pages of the American Architect.
It will be mainly useful from its historical and theoretical bearing, as all that is here included which is of practical value for application to modern uses can be found elsewhere in more available shape. The illustrations form a most important feature in the usefulness of the book. The remarkable diagrammatic drawings of Viollet-le-Duc are famous for their clearness and the amount of information which they convey.
The table of contents includes the following headings: Discussion of General Conditions and Principles; Roman and Romanesque Vaults; Origin of the Pointed Arch; Development of Principles; Vaults; Materials; Thirteenth Century Developments; Civil and Military Construction.
Catalogue of the Premiated Drawings of the Department of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1895. Published by the Architectural Society. Forty-four illustrations.
The work of the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is without doubt the most fully developed students' work in architecture now done in this country, and the drawings shown in this catalogue, giving a selection of the best designs from the year's work just finished, do credit alike to the system followed at the school, the fidelity of the instructors, and the earnestness and talent of the students. The premiated designs in the competitions of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects made in the course of regular school work are reproduced in this catalogue, and also the first-mentioned designs in the regular monthly problems forming the drill in design of the school. The program for the latter is given in each case. These problems make up a graded series of considerable interest, and are worth careful study and comparison.
Building Exhibit.
The many recent developments in the building arts have rendered it practically impossible for those not directly connected with them to keep informed of the latest and most improved methods of construction, or, in fact, to easily obtain information when desired. To architects, whose business it is to be familiar with the best and most economical method of solving any building problem, it is often difficult to find the information desired, as the field is so wide and the inventions and improvements multiply so rapidly. To meet the requirements of intending builders, as well as architects, permanent exhibits of building materials have been established in several of the principal cities of the United States, where it is possible to see specimens of the actual materials, appliances, and latest inventions used in modern construction. There are such exhibits in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and Brooklyn; and all are proving indispensable in their special fields.
The Chicago exhibit, known as the Institute of Building Arts, located at from 63 to 69 Washington Street, is owned and managed directly by the Illinois Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and has been controlled in this way for the past five years.
It was established for the purpose of centralizing information relating to buildings, and collecting in a permanent exhibition all materials, appliances, or inventions of a practical or ornamental character. Its advantages are: First, educational, by placing before the interested public an aggregation of building intelligence in the form of exhibits of the actual materials, appliances, and inventions employed in modern construction. Second, that in the fact of such centralization of materials, a vast amount of time is saved to the public concerned in building interests. For those who desire to build, information is not only gained regarding a large variety of improvements, but obtained in a minimum quantity of time.
The Institute of Building Arts is free to the visiting public, who are welcome to all its advantages of information and to the inspection of the numerous exhibits it contains. It furnishes gratuitously, to any one who may inquire, information relating to building improvements. It maintains a series of tests of materials, the results of which may be obtained by anyone asking for them. Courses of lectures given by skilful specialists instructive in the many sciences and arts of Architecture are given under its auspices.
The management of the Institute is strictly impartial as to the merits of the exhibits, having no financial interest in any sale. The purchaser has perfect liberty to examine the exhibits and negotiate with any exhibitor. It is the duty of the management to protect each and every display from any impositions or trespasses on their several rights, and to explain to any inquirer the qualities and merits of the material or invention, as claimed by the exhibitor, but to give no individual expression of views for or against any exhibit. The examiners are to be left perfectly free to judge and accept from their own standpoint.
The important work of the Institution has made of it a central point of great interest to all connected with or interested in architecture and its kindred arts, and those who are identified with the work will not fail to be amply repaid for their interest or their labor in its upbuilding.
It became necessary a year ago to increase the floor space, and nearly one half as much more space was secured and the rooms are crowded with beautiful and instructive exhibits. The Illinois Chapter, A. I. A., has fitted up a fine library and meeting-room in the Institute, which it throws open to the interested public, who find the many pictures and books therein a great enjoyment and benefit.
The other exhibits above referred to are strictly commercial in character, and conducted in the interests of the exhibitors, and consequently may not command the prestige possessed by the Chicago Institute. Nevertheless they are important educational factors in their special localities and are a great convenience to all connected with the building trades. Every large commercial centre should be thus supplied. The success of those already established will doubtless lead to the early establishment of others. Architects and manufacturers both need only to observe the workings of any of the exhibits which we have mentioned to be convinced of their great practical value, and each individual will be enhancing his own interest while contributing to the success of all the others concerned by lending whatever assistance he can to this most praiseworthy enterprise.
Notes.
An architect cannot work to the best advantage without the best and most convenient appliances. It is true that sometimes the cleverest and most skilful draughtsmen appear least concerned about their instruments and materials, and often produce work showing wonderful dexterity and mastery of technique with the most imperfect working materials. But this is exceptional. After years of study and practice one may be able to produce with the sharpened end of a match, or with a toothpick, drawings which it would tax the skill of an ordinary draughtsman to approach with the best brushes and colors, but it is easy to see that this is no argument why the latest and most improved methods should not be employed.
Most architects still hold to the old-fashioned drawing boards supported upon trestles, and mostly from the simple inertia of custom. The improved Morse Universal Drawing Table, which is made in all sizes, with a single or double support, isconceded to be more convenient and ship-shape in all respects than the ordinary drawing board, and is only slightly more expensive in its first cost. The size which is shown in the accompanying illustration which has a board 30x36 inches, costs only $15 and is by far the cheapest and best device of its kind that we have seen. All of these tables are made to fold so as to occupy as little space as possible when not in use; will revolve or incline at any angle, and independently of the attachments below. They are built of the best materials (iron, brass, and wood) and are finely finished. The board can be made of either polished chestnut or unfinished pine if desired, and various additional attachments can be had for further convenience.
Architects and draughtsmen will be surprised to find what a saving can be made in time and trouble by the use of this most essential article of furniture, as well as the remarkably low price at which it can be bought.
Many other articles of furniture which are necessary for the proper equipment of an architect's office are also manufactured by the Morse Machine Company of Rochester, such as cabinets of various descriptions, desks, special drawing boards with a steel edge (a sine qua non for the production of fine, accurate drawings), and special furniture of all descriptions. Architects will find it greatly to their profit, both in money and saving of trouble, to take advantage of the experience and facilities for manufacturing the best goods furnished by this company.
There are very few manufacturers of sanitary goods that keep up with the Dalton-Ingersoll Company in genuine improvements and novelties. Scarcely a month passes without something in the way of improvement emanating from this house; and the remarkable thing is the care and attention bestowed upon the minutest details, nothing about a sanitary fixture being considered too insignificant to command their best inventive genius. Their monthly announcement preceding our frontispiece is worth watching.
The palatial Jefferson Hotel at Richmond, Va., of which Carrère & Hastings are the architects, is built of a very fine white clay brick manufactured by the Powhatan Clay Manufacturing Company of Richmond. The strong point of this particular brick is that it is made of a natural white clay, and is not subject to the discoloration of some bricks made by artificially whitening the clay.
The great success of the "Giant" Metal Sash Chain made by the Smith & Egge Manufacturing Company, has of course led to imitation and infringement of their patented methods of manufacture. Nothing is saved by specifying "cheaper" goods, for there really are no cheaper goods than the best; and when heavy sashes are to be hung "Giant" metal chain is the proper specification.
The expense of getting up a working model, bronze finish sash lock mounted on a base, for a paper weight, and sending this free to any architect who desires one would deter most manufacturers from taking this method of advertising. But the Ives Lock is such "a good thing" that it well repays "pushing." The model works so perfectly and is so simple and durable in construction that its introduction to architects throughout the country, occupying a prominent place on their desks, is securing the almost universal specification of the lock. Architects who haven't one of these paper weights will be well repaid for asking Hobart B. Ives & Co. of New Haven, Conn., to send them one. In this connection let us add that this lock secured the medal and highest award at the Columbian Exposition.
Personal.
Among the Americans who will return from abroad this summer are: Mr. Walter H. Kilham, the holder of the Rotch Scholarship, who has now been abroad two years; Mr. F. E. Perkins, who has been abroad three years; and Mr. W. Atherton,—all of Boston. Messrs. D. Hale, W. W. Knowles, G. O. Totten, Laflin, and Ramond, of New York, and Mr. A. D. Koch, of Milwaukee, also return this summer.
Mr. J. Greenleaf Thorp announces his removal to the Constable Building, 111 Fifth Avenue, New York.
In bringing the affairs of the Architect Department of the city of Boston to a final settlement pending its abolishment on July 1, Mr. Edw. H. Hoyt has been acting as City Architect Wheelwright's assistant, in place of Mr. Matthew Sullivan, now abroad, who has most acceptably filled that position during the whole of Mr. Wheelwright's term of office. In future the work of the city will be distributed among private architects.
Mr. Frank E. Wallis has gone into partnership with Frank E. Freeman, and opened an office on West Twentieth Street, New York City.
Mr. Harold Magonigle, the Rotch scholar who has now been abroad a year, has during the last few months been doing important work in the way of measuring and drawing Roman and Renaissance monuments in and near Rome. Some of his later drawings will presently be published in The Architectural Review.
Notice to Advertisers
The letter below was written
after a three months'
trial advertisement
Rochester, N. Y., July 27, 1895.
BATES & GUILD,
6 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.
Dear Sirs: Yours of the 26th received. In reply will say that we desire our advertisement to continue in the Brochure Series, and will state that this advertisement has given us better returns than any other we are carrying. We think that a magazine similar to yours is very much better than a trade journal, because the Brochure Series will be preserved, and will therefore be permanent.
We were tempted recently to put an advertisement in the Architectural Review on account of the good results received from the Brochure Series. Please send us the bill for our account for the first quarter, so that we can have it audited and send you a check.
Very truly yours,
Dic. W. F. M. MORSE MACHINE CO.
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