Page:Architectural Record 1920-08 Vol 48 Iss 2.djvu/69



narily massive exterior walls of the monastery were left standing while the new edifice was going up behind them, masking the work so completely that few passers-by suspected what was going on inside. So when the monastery walls were torn down the new building, standing forth in full completion, was a revelation. The chastely beautiful facade, with its unhackneyed disposition of classic elements, has an effectiveness strikingly in keeping with climatic conditions that invite a gracious airiness in design imparted by the columnar motive employed to develop the attractive galleried features of the promenade and lobby of the first and second floors, respectively, with handsome double stairways rising from the entrance lobby on the ground floor.

An excellent feature of the handsome Georgian design of the Rafael M. de Labra School in the Santurce district of San Juan is the large cloistered pátio between the two wings, the class-rooms giving onto its open galleries and kept remote from the noise of the busy main traffic artery of San Juan, the “Carretera,” or Avenida Ponce de Leon. Another notable school-building of recent construction in San Juan is the Rafael Cordero School, also in the Santurce barrio. It might, like so much that is Spanish, be difficult to assign the style of this design, but in its rather joyous compositeness it has decidedly Romanesque implications, with a touch of the Plateresque.

A sparkle of color is given to the concrete surfaces by the red brick ornamentation that imparts strength and richness of outline to the arcade and the window-spaces. Possibly a purist might object to the alternate columns in the open gallery of the second story that center upon the arches below. But in this case the fact that the arches, being of reinforced concrete, are monolithic in character, justifies a quite conscious departure from a good rule for the sake of a feature of undeniable beauty.

In all these examples of Mr. Finlayson’s work in reinforced concrete that herewith find illustration the architect