Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/342

 282 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders Journal. [October, Accompanying the progress of archi- tecture, and ably assisting it on its on- ward march, was the discovery of illu- minating gas ; and to this may be added the rapidly increasing inventions of do- mestic comforts, wholly unknown to our benighted fathers, whose bliss was their ignorance ; for, they sighed not after that which they never once dreamed of. Wood, the frail material with which we have been constructing, is growing scarcer, and consequently dearer, giving way to sterner stuff to insure the dura- tion of our buildings of to-daj This is all opportune, for we are coming by sure degrees to a style of " house-build- ing" more in keeping with the charac- teristics of this country and this people, than those borrowed fossils of Europe, which, when they gave appearance, failed to give comfort; or vice versa. It is, then, most desirable, that we should have an enduring material, to make this style lasting ; a thing to be handed down, from sire to son, through generations ; a homestead, not alone for the present, but for the future. Men are now giving more attention to the solids of construction, such as stone and iron, than thej^ have hitherto done ; and the knowledge of construc- tion is beginning to be more thoroughly understood. It is a revealed and recog- nized fact, that ponderosity is not strength, but that strength is as much a manufactured article as any thing else. It becomes, therefore, the duty of our generation of architects, to study the philosophy of this theory; and reduce it to practice ; and not, like Sir John Vanbrugh, be subject to the pungent epitaph which the sarcastic poet, Pope, proposed for the tomb of that then pop- ular architect " Lie heavy on him, earth — for he Laid many a heavy pile on thee." Next to construction, our architects have closely and clearly to study form and effect ; bearing in mind, that they build permanently ; and, therefore, the style of such building should be of en- during taste. Positive beauty of out- line is not a mere matter of inspiration or chance. It is a studied, well-digested thought — an embodied poetry of form, the test of which is the effect it produces on the observant eye. It would repay many a modern archi- tect to proceed more slowly with his design ; and let every line have its shai*e of thought, bearing in mind the collateral requirements of dimensions, distance, and apparent proportions, when these are fixed facts. For it is not by geometrical lines, to a scale on paper, that such things can be mani- fested. Full many a building do we see around us, looking unsightly, which promised well on the drawing-board, nay, delighted all who saw it. Why is this ? Because the subjects of light and shade have been overlooked, not in the mere coloring of the drawing, but in the actual construction itself, for there are many subtleties in atmospheric action, which cannot be studied in a drawing. In fact, if we compare the design, with the building when complete, we will find a difference of effect, that will surprise the observer. A perspective drawing is always taken from one fixed point. Not so the building itself. We view it from many different points; and this fact, added to the atmospheric effect, before alluded to, will give some elucidation of the problem. All this goes to impress the necessity of deliberate study in the management of a design, with reference to a success- ful execution of it thereafter. Then there would be less complaining on the part of those immediately interested ; and the architect would feel more satis- fied with his completed building. In all cases where taste is at all liable to be violated, >y the overruling of their employers, it would be well, if our architects should unhesitatingly and determinedly set their faces against such interventions. No matter what the