The Mentor: Beautiful Buildings of the World, Serial no. 33

by Clarence Ward

The Mentor

"A Wise and Faithful Guide and Friend"

No. 33

Vol. I

BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS of the WORLD

TAJ MAHAL THE ALHAMBRA AMIENS CATHEDRAL

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL CHÂTEAU de CHAMBORD NEW YORK CITY HALL

By CLARENCE WARD

Professor of Architecture, Rutgers College

Beauty in architecture is as difficult to define as beauty in nature. No single factor renders a building beautiful. Size and proportion, style and decoration, age and setting, all enter into account. And moreover there is the power a building possesses to appeal to the ideals of the beholder, to his mind as well as to his sight and touch. Even when judged from this broad viewpoint, the number of beautiful buildings in the world is legion. It would be impossible to point to anyone as the finest, or even to select a dozen without leaving a dozen more that were equally beautiful. Every age, and every nation, has left to us some crowning achievements of the builder's art. The following are therefore merely selections from this storehouse, illustrating to some degree the wealth of architectural treasures that is our heritage.