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Page 1
METHODS OF REDUCING THE FIRE LOSS. 28
SOCIETIES. 30
COMMUNICATIONS.--
Agreement between Architect and Client.--Inspection of Buildings in
New York.--A seeming Attempt to defraud an Architect.--Ventilating
Wooden Columns.--Books on Water-color Painting. 30
NOTES AND CLIPPINGS. 31
TRADE SURVEYS. 32
* * * * *
We wonder whether every one who receives these first issues of the
International Edition of the _American Architect_ comprehends the
significance of the step which we, with the kind support and
appreciation of our subscribers, have ventured to take. How many of
those who turn over our pages realize that this is by far the most
ambitious and costly architectural periodical in the world, and that it
has been reserved for America to try to present every week, with a due
proportion of the more valuable models from the past, an adequate view
of all the best architecture which modern civilization can show?
Strangely enough, in carrying out our plan of representing contemporary
architecture as it should be represented, it is to Americans that we
must most earnestly and urgently appeal for cooperation. We know where
we can get drawings, plans, photographs, descriptions and details of all
the best current work in North and South Germany, Italy, France and
England, and even in Russia, but to secure anything like a decent
representation of modern American architecture has hitherto been,
according to our experience, absolutely impossible. Not long ago a
discussion took place in England about architectural periodicals, and
one or two of the American journals were mentioned with commendation, on
account of the beautiful drawing and process-work in their
illustrations, as well as the value of their text. Not long afterwards,
a disparaging commentary on this discussion was made in one of the
English professional papers, to the effect that it was a great mistake
to value so highly the illustrations in the American journals, for the
reason that, although charmingly executed and fascinating, they rarely
represented architectural work of any importance. Our readers,
especially those faithful friends who have stood by us for years, will
understand that this was a sharp thrust, but it is, and not through our
fault, altogether too well deserved. While in all other countries where
architecture is practised, every important competition is regularly
illustrated from the competitive drawings themselves, which are, as a
matter of course, placed at the disposal of the professional journals;
and plans, elevations, sections and perspectives of all new buildings of
interest, and often photographs from the models for the sculptured
detail, and illustrations of the schemes for heating and ventilation are
gladly furnished by the architects, who understand perfectly that their
professional reputation depends in great part on the publicity which is
given to their work through the medium of the technical press: in this
country, on the contrary, the attitude toward technical journals of a
great many architects, and among them some who are constantly engaged
upon very important work, is one, apparently, of grave suspicion. The
most earnest appeals by letter on the part of the editors for permission
to publish plans or elevations of a successful building by one of them
meet with no response. Then the editor takes two or three days from his
abundant leisure, and calls personally upon the professional magnate.
The latter seems pleased to see him, shows him the drawings of the
building in question, appears to be gratified at his praises, and
readily agrees to allow the publication of the plan and perspective. The
editor lays these drawings aside, and proposes to take them with him,
but the architect politely insists that he cannot allow him to burden
himself, and promises that he will send them immediately by express. The
editor returns to his desk, and arranges space for the expected drawings
in the next issue, but they do not arrive. Two or three weeks go by, and
he then writes to the distinguished architect, to remind him of his
promise. The letter brings neither the drawings nor any other response,
and, after a final entreaty, as unsuccessful as the rest, he abandons
his efforts, to begin them again with a fresh subject, who proves as
slippery as the other.
* * * * *
After a good many years of such struggles, we should be inclined to say
that we would trouble ourselves no further, and that American architects
who are capable of carrying out important work successfully, and do not
want other people to know it, may please themselves in the matter, were
it not that, in a journal which now intends to show what is done all
over the world, we most earnestly wish to have American, architecture
properly represented. We are sure that the best of it is equal to the
best anywhere, and we want to be able to prove it. The treatment of our
modern mercantile and business structures, particularly those ten or
twelve stories in height, is more successful than any other work of the
kind in the world; the planning of our office-buildings is unrivalled
anywhere, and some of our apartment-houses will bear comparison with the
best in Paris--which are the best anywhere--and are more interesting, on
account of the more complex character of the services which we must
provide for. Besides this, many details of American construction, such
as the encased iron framing-and isolated pier foundations of the Chicago
architects, and the heating and ventilating systems in use everywhere
here, are far in advance of foreign practice, and we want our foreign
readers to see this with their own eyes, and to give their American
brethren their proper rank in the profession. To do this we must have
the material, and we appeal once more to American architects who have it
to furnish it, and to those who do not have it themselves, but who know
where it is to be found, to get it for us, or to put us in the way of
getting it. Plans, elevations, perspectives, sketches, photographs,
negatives, descriptions, whatever is good, we want to show, for the
benefit and reputation of the profession in America far more than for
our own, for we know better than the profession how very valuable
publicity of the kind is to architects. The late Mr. Richardson, even to
a comparatively late period in his professional career, was afflicted
with the usual bashfulness about having his work published. We well
remember the solicitations, the refusals, the renewed appeals, and,
finally, the reluctant and conditional assent to have a single gelatine
print from one of his perspectives published. This was the drawing, we
think, of the Woburn Library, and was accompanied by a plan. Finding
that he had suffered no severe injury from this exposure of his design
to the gaze of the cold world, Mr. Richardson soon became one of our
kindest friends, and if reputation and employment are things to be
desired by an architect, we may say with all due modesty that what he
did for us was repaid to him a hundred-fold, for, great as was his
talent, it must, without the publicity given to his work through means
like ours, have had for years only a local influence. As it was,
however, every issue of ours with one of his designs was studied in a
thousand offices and imitated in hundreds; his name was in the mouths of
all architects throughout the Union; our plates were reproduced abroad;
the illustrated magazines, finding his reputation already made in the
profession, hastened to spread it among the public; and at his lamented
death, a few years later, he was the central figure of American
architecture. Now, although we do not say that all the architects who
send us their drawings will attain the fame of a Richardson, we do say
that Richardson would never have attained a fraction of his reputation
if he had not allowed his designs to be published, and we need hardly
say further that if any architect has done a good piece of work, and has
it published, more people will know about it than if he kept it to
himself; and the more people know about his good work, the more will
come to him to get some like it, the better will be his standing in the
profession here, and the more credit he will do his country abroad.
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