It is not for nothing that almost every detail of the mechanized building follows a standard pattern and preserves a studious anonymity. Except for the short run of the entrance, the original architect has no part in its interior development. If the architect himself is largely paralyzed by his problem, what shall we say of the artisans, and of the surviving handicraft workers who still contribute their quota of effort to the laying of bricks and stones, to the joining of pipes, to the plastering of ceilings? Gone are most of their opportunities for the exercise of skilled intelligence, to say nothing of art: they might as well make paper-boxes or pans for all the personal stamp they can give to their work. Bound to follow the architect’s design, as the printer is supposed to follow the author’s words, it is no wonder that they behave like the poor drudge in the Chicago Exposition who left bare or half-ornamented the columns which the architect had not bothered to duplicate in full in the haste of finishing his drawing. Is it any wonder, too, that the last vestige of guild standards is gone: that the politics of industry, the bargaining for better wages and fewer hours, concerns them more than their control over their job and the honor and veracity of their workmanship? What kind of work can a man put into “the cheapest building that will last fifteen years”? IV The chief justification for our achievements in mechanical architecture has been brought forth by those who believe it has provided the basis for a new style. Unfortunately, the enthusiasts who have put the esthetic achievements of mechanical architecture in a niche by themselves, and who have serenely disregarded all its lapses and failures and inefficiencies, have centered their attention mainly upon its weakest feature--the skyscraper. I cannot help thinking that they have looked in the wrong place. The economic and social reasons for regarding the skyscraper as undesirable have been briefly alluded to; if they needed any further confirmation, a week’s experience of the miseries of rapid transit would perhaps be sufficient. It remains to point out that the esthetic reasons are just as sound.