Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/219

 1868.] Descriptions. 179 GENERAL REMARKS. THE amazingly rapid increase of vitality, the unparalleled growth, the ever increasing wealth and refine- ment of the large cities, in every section of our land, and the concomitant greater love and appreciation of the fine arts and readier perception of the beau- tiful, therein awakened, have aroused a laudable spirit of rivalry and emulation among all classes of our business men. This spirit has, of late years, developed itself, among other ways, in a taste for the enlargement and decoration of their dwellings and places of business ; and city seems to vie with city, in the elegance, nay, even magnificence and grandeur, which have been lavished, with unsparing hand, on public or pri- vate buildings of all kinds. Thus wealth is circulated, labor is promoted and encouraged, and our cities are embel- lished with elegant and tasteful struc- tures, of many of which any land might be proud. It has, also, been the happy cause of throwing open to our archi- tects, who have not been backward in availing themselves of these, opportu- nities of exhibiting and exercising their artistic skill, and taste in designing. The eager rivalry in trade, the improved and constantly improving facilities of communication, and the increasing thirst for travel, both foreign and domestic, so evident in the life of the present, have been the means of awakening all our cities to a sense of the vital neces- sity of applying — both for their own interests and individual, as well as national, reputation — all resources at their command, to render their streets and public buildings as attractive and elegant as possible. To accomplish this end, the architect is, naturally, the one first consulted ; and on his good taste, professional knowledge and skill, is mainly dependent the character, whether good, bad, or indifferent, which marks any particular style. If he is mas- ter of his profession, and applies himself boldly and independently to his appointed task, aided by a knowledge of the purposes for which the intended edifice is designed, his work is a compara- tively easy and a pleasant one. But, on the contrary, if, as is too often the case, he is trammeled and embarrassed bj an ambitious or unreasonably exacting employer, then, indeed, the difficulties which he has to surmount or smooth over, cannot be apprehended by any non-professional man. By ambitious, we mean an employer whose whole soul is bent upon the one point of eclipsing his compeers and neighbors, .by the erection of a structure, that will totally throw into the shade, as to elegance and magnitude, any then existing dwellings ; and by unreasonably exacting, we refer to that spirit of parsimony and illiber- ality, which strives to attain the object of his ambition, viz.: to excel his neigh- bors ; and, at the same time, begrudges the cost ; these traits, as a natural con- sequence, when persisted in, harass the architect, anxious as he may be to meet the wishes of the employer, and entail upon him much extra labor. We make no mention of the additional unnecessary expense thereby occasioned, which has to be borne by the architect, although this might, perhaps, be taken into consideration. That such a spirit is but too often exhibited, in the deal- ings between architects and employers, is too patent to be denied or passed over. There may perhaps be an attempt to extenuate by ascribing it to a weak- ness inherent in human nature ; but it is unworthy of the enlightened and liberal age in which we live. We see on all sides, in every land, encourage- ment and fostering care lavished on all the fine arts, whereof architecture — the chief and the greatest — is that, without