3, That the best use of the location is made and the building suited to the constituency and local conditions.
4, That the estimated cost is well within the limit named, for new objects of [expense] are certain to appear during the process of building and debt must not be thought of.
5, That the building is convenient for work and supervision, a point at which many an elegant and costly building has conspicuously failed.
Make it also neat and beautiful, for it is to be the abiding place of all that is best in human thought and experience and is to be a home in which all inquiring souls are to be welcomed. Since the people are to be our guests let us make the place of their reception worthy of its purpose.
[THE RELATION OF THE ARCHITECT TO THE LIBRARIAN.]
By John Lawrence Mauran, Architect, St. Louis, Mo.
The public library, as we understand the name to-day, has had but a brief existence compared with the mere housing of collections of books which has gone on through countless ages.
With the change from the old ideas of safeguarding the precious books themselves to the advanced theory of placing their priceless contents within the easy reach of all, has come an equally important change in the character of the custodian of the books. The duties of the modern librarian are such that he must be not only something of a scholar, in the best sense of the word, but he must be capable also of properly directing others in the pursuit of learning, and, withal, combine executive ability with a highly specialized professional facility. The result of carefully conceived courses of training is apparent in the wonderful results achieved through the devoted and untiring efforts of the members of this Association towards a constant betterment of their charges, and a closer bonding, through affection, between the masses of the people and that portion of the books which lies between the covers.
My purpose in recalling to your memory the wonderful advance made by training in your profession in a comparatively short time, is to give point to an analogy I wish to draw, showing a corresponding advance in the profession of architecture. Not so very many years ago there were ample grounds for the recalling by Mr. David P. Todd of Lord Bacon's warning against the sacrifice of utility to mere artistic composition in the following words: "Houses are built to Live in, and not to Looke on: Therefore let Use bee preferred before Uniformitie; Except where both may be had Leave the Goodly Fabrickes of Houses, for Beautie only, to the Enchanted Pallaces of the Poets; Who build them with small Cost": but to-day, thanks to the munificence of the French government and the untiring energy of some of those who have profited by it, in fostering the growth of our own architectural schools, there are few sections of this broad land which have not one or more worthy followers of Palladio and Michael Angelo. Hunt, Richardson and Post were among the first to receive the training of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and they, moreover, had the rare judgment to take the training only, adapting their designs to the climatic and other local conditions rather than attempting the importation of French forms as well as method of design. Their example and the impetus they were able to impart to the technical schools have been potent factors in the development of the talent of American architects. While it is true, and more the pity, that some students return from Paris with the idea that because Paris is a beautiful city architecturally, the simple injection of some of their own masterpieces into our diverse city street fronts, is going to reincarnate our municipalities, the major portion are sufficiently discriminating to realize that Paris owes much of its charm to a symmetry under governmental control which we, free born Americans, can never hope to attain, and leave behind them the mere forms and symbols of their alma mater to use that which is best and most profitable in their training; that is, a breadth of conception of the problem and a logical method of sequential study of it which ensures a creditable if not an ideal solution. The modern architect, to be successful, must be conversant with a vast amount of information which is apparently outside his chosen profession—such as the minutiae of hospitals, churches, libraries, railroad stations and the like. As a case in point I recall the address of a certain railroad president at the dedication of a large terminal depot, in which he said: "while we have had the co-operation of engineers and specialists in every branch of the work, I must give great credit to our architect who is responsible for the conception of the entire system of the handling of passengers, although he was employed solely to enclose the space designated by our engineers." It is not my purpose to laud the profession of architecture, but rather to show its preparedness to co-operate with you in achieving the best in library construction and design.