Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/104

 84 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [August, Slate is commonly employed for the covering, with tin for all gutters and weathering. Balustrades are very seldom omitted, in these roofs, by the French. This, one of the most salient and indispensable characteristics, is entirely overlooked in most of the Mansards in this country. In visiting Paris, or any important French city, the differences between French French-roofs and foreign, or American French-roofs, are detected at once. OUR SCOPE AND TENDENCY. TTTE will here assume the liberty of V V a few remarks, concerning the employment of architects, in designing buildings and superintending their con- struction. We remember having heard a gentle- man, of much experience and known skill, state, at the time we undertook to publish the " Model Architect," that it was an addition to that class of books cal- culated to injure the profession to which we both belong, Had we entertained the same opinion, that work never would have appeared, no matter how desirous we might have been to improve the taste of the community. But, with as much propriety, might it be said, that the" publication of a volume of sermons, would prevent those, who should buy it, from attending church, or that the reading of a family receipt-book would, in the event of illness, deter an appli- cation to a medical practitioner. It is true, that a builder can under- stand the designs, details and construc- tion of any edifice, so far as they are shown in the drawings, as well as the architect ; and hence it may be said, that the cases above adduced, are parallel. To this cavil, we must enter our protest. An untutored man — or even one who possesses a certain amount of practical knowledge, but is destitute of those ad- vantages derived from the information, the knowledge and the experience of others — may assume infallible skill to cure all diseases; but no judicious person will, in the event of sickness, trust one of his family, or himself, in such hands. There are also some builders, who pretend to the art of de- sign, and, perhaps, honestly put forward their supposed capabilities, as if they really were equal, or superior, to the most eminent architects of the age. But no one, desiring to build with taste, will believe that they can be equally ca- pable of designing, with the one, whose life has been spent, in gathering from the records and drawings of all ages, the principles and the combinations " fitting him to give forms of elegance and beauty to the abiding places of man." We may also observe, that it is only the man, who intends doing wrong, that can recommend the execution of any work, without the superintendence of an architect, except in those cases where professional skill cannot be ob- tained, without a disproportionate ex- penditure of capital and time. For whom, then, we may be asked, is this work intended ? and we reply, for the general reader, the gentleman, the architect, the builder, and the mechanic ! It should increase the satisfaction of the general reader when he encounters tech- nical descriptions. It will assist the gentleman in fixing on the style in which he will erect his domicile. It may aid the architect in designing. It must help the builder in construction. And it will certainly teach the mechanic details. At the same time, it might be the means of introducing a better style of architecture in those situations, where professional assistance cannot be ob- tained.