Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/68

 3 6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

easy and cheap to follow the bare outlines given with no attempt at originality or individuality, making the building the maximal size permitted for the sake of the rents. This produces long rows of houses all of a pattern. The harmony sought is lost because variety is lacking. The result is monotony instead. The prescriptions are too minute, and slavish application of them has destroyed the spirit. The buildings which have been erected within the past three or four years show a breaking away from the Renaissance style which has ruled so persistently. The Jugcnd-Stil which has replaced it is sometimes rather riotous and fanciful; but there is much good in this New Art, based upon frankness in following the lines of construction rather than upon deceit in covering them over; and when it sobers down some- what, it will be very acceptable indeed. One of the noticeable points of street decoration shown in certain drawings and photographs exhibited is the presence of great numbers of balconies and bow windows. For people whose dwelling con- sists of a few rooms occupying part of one story of a large building, surrounded and faced by other large buildings, the balcony affords untold advantage and delight; and when, in summer, it is lined with flower-boxes filled with plants, the whole street becomes a mass of bloom. Hildesheim is a city rich in inherited wealth of wonderful and beautiful architecture, and she wishes to preserve her treasure. An ordinance which went into effect July I, 1899, provides that all building or alteration which is visible from certain specified streets and squares where the majority of the old timbered houses stand, shall be made to harmonize in color scheme and style of architecture with these seventeenth-century buildings. This means, from an art point of view, a very delicate piece of work ; and a question as to the possibility of its success is quite pardonable. The Hildesheimers may succeed, however, in creating a new style based upon the old and harmonizing with it, at the same time, satisfying modern demands for sufficient light and air, and all the other sanitary advantages coincident with modern architecture.

City decoration. Laying out a city is a scientific work, but must have its artistic side. Peculiar engineering difficulties are