The Brochure Series of Architectural Illustration, vol. 06, No. 01, January 1900: The Ten Most Beautiful Buildings in the United States.Hamlin, A. D. F. (Alfred Dwight Foster)
General
The Brochure Series of Architectural Illustration, vol. 06, No. 01, January 1900: The Ten Most Beautiful Buildings in the United States.
Hamlin, A. D. F. (Alfred Dwight Foster)
Architecture -- Periodicals; Architecture -- United States; Buildings -- United States
buildings themselves, instead of the motives of the voters, the same
statistics indicate, as we might expect, a like catholicity of taste
in the designs of recent American buildings, and--what is more to the
point--a conspicuous measure of success in fusing together and adapting
to modern American needs the multifarious suggestions of the "historic
styles," so that the results are neither copies nor patchwork, but
consistent, intelligent and harmonious units.
[Illustration: NEW PORCH, TRINITY CHURCH BOSTON]
Taking next the second comparative table, we find that in the "First"
and "Second" lists taken together, 20 per cent of the names are
those of government or administrative buildings; 15 per cent are
churches, with the same number of libraries (three of each, all on the
"First" list). There are two each of museums, club houses and private
residences; and one each of office buildings, hotels, and amusement
houses. Here again we encounter the same breadth of judgment as in the
first comparison. The BROCHURE readers, and presumably our architects
generally, are willing to discover beauty alike in public, private,
religious, and commercial architecture.
[Illustration: PLATE V COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, NEW YORK CITY]
It is a significant fact that churches and libraries constitute 60 per
cent of the "First" list, and that there is but one residence, and not
a single commercial edifice among the ten buildings it enumerates.
Apparently it is religion and education which inspire and call forth
the highest results in architecture, rather than the private and
commercial luxury of which we hear so much in these days. If to these
sources of architectural inspiration we add that of civil government,
it appears that we owe 80 per cent of the "First" list to government,
religion and education--the three highest activities of the community.
This is not merely due to the fact that the architectural requirements
of churches and civic buildings are such as favor monumental results;
for both in size and cost, and hence in the opportunity for an ample
and sumptuous architectural treatment, these are often surpassed by
banking and office buildings, private palaces and rich men's clubs.
The presence of three truly magnificent public libraries of recent
erection in the "First" list seems to me particularly encouraging, as
a symptom of the extent to which the wealth of the country is being
devoted to the higher interests of the people, and at the same time
to the promotion of high art. That this is a correct symptom, is
confirmed by such buildings, erected or about to be erected, as the
Chicago Library, the magnificent New York Public Library, the new
libraries at Milwaukee, Providence, Newark, N.J., Jersey City, and
Washington; by the Art Museum at Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery at
Washington, the new wing to the Metropolitan Museum at New York, the
Phebe Hearst competition for the University of California, and other
like enterprises.
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