Page:Architectural Record 1920-08 Vol 48 Iss 2.djvu/19



THE STUDY—RESIDENCE OF GEORGE HOWE, ESO., CHESTNUT HILL, PHILADELPHIA, Mellor, Meigs & Howe, Architects.

in its details. Were not the phrase “modern art” soniewhat discredited for having been a cloak to a multitude of sins, of what modern art ought to be: a logical continuation of the best traditions. It is as free from archaeological imitation as it is devoid of a pretentious striving for originalitv. There again the good- breeding asserts itself.
 * would see here a very typical example

As someone who had recently visited it told me: “It does not look like a Phila- delphia house.” It is a distinct departure from the usual tvpes—some of them of great merit—which for the last twenty vears have been the fashion in the neigh- borhood. In few words, it has personality. look at the very bold treatment of iron balconies on the garden facade; at the most ingenious arrangement of the stair- way; and note the omission of those well known details which come at their as- signed place, like certain rhymes in ama- teurish poetry. Everywhere one finds an expression of forms that seem to have

been created for that particular place, and without effort.

No doubt many clients would be disap- pointed by their inability to tack a “style” label to any portion of it. This considera- tion had no weight in the case, for, as I have said, the architect is also the owner. lhe living room is neither Elizabethan nor Jacobean; the dining room is not Louis XVI. They are both designed with a true sense of the decorative effect pro- duced by the nature of the floor, the color and texture of the walls, and, above all, by their proportion. They attempt to be nothing more than a setting for the furniture, some tapestries and a few paintings, and with the true conception of a setting—that it must be nothing but a background for the players. There are interiors, of course, not complying with this rule, which are masterpieces. Bare of furniture, the rooms of the Doges’ Palace or the “Grands Apartements” of Versailles are still beautiful. They belong, however, to that kind of