Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/888

 720 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [May ON WARMING AND VENTILATION. WE, of the Middle States of America, have a climate whose temperature has a greater range than perhaps that of any other country. In the summer, the temperature in the sun, frequently reaches near to 150° F., and, in the winter, it falls to 10° below 0° F. In the summer we have it hot, and as the expression goes, " without a breath of air " for. weeks; in the win- ter, furious cold blasts, which would cause an Esquimaux to shiver. Should not our Architecture then be in adap- tation to these great extremes ? American Architecture designs great halls, for public use, churches, theatres, dancing saloons, and lecture rooms, which are but little adapted to the climate, and to the comfort and health of the people for whose use they are built. Architecture, is an Economic, as well as a Fine Art. We, in America, erect a church in the Gothic stjde, having a roof of vast proportions, the most striking feature of its exterior, and certainly not a beautiful feature. And, in the interior, under this roof, or between its two sloping sides, and reaching far above its walls, we have a vast, void space, to be heated in winter, and cooled in summer, (for what, let me ask is more attractive of the heat of the sun, than a great roof.) Is this a style adapted to our climate ? You may mix the Gothic with the Norman, or Lombardic, or the Byzan- tine ; or confuse and confound the Gothic, with any other rude style, it is inappropriate to a modern church in any climate, and not less so, in this climate — we in this age of comfort and luxury, want a church for comfort, and for worship, in accordance with Prot- estant forms and ceremonies ; or if Catholics, with Catholic rites and cere- monies. An architect should regard the Art Economic as well as the Fine Arts ; but with the Gothic, or its combination with other styles of the early and middle ages, neither is regarded. To be sure, buildings of these styles may be heated, and may be ventilated, and may be repaired. But to do so entails an enormous expense. Our climate is more destructive of masonry and roofs, than perhaps any other ; and 3 T et our cities are dotted with edifices, on which ail sorts of mouldings and irregularities of masonry are placed, to be disintegra- ted and ruined before the lapse of a century. The ferocious fanatics, the in- tolerant Puritans of the days of Charles I, tore out of the churches of that day, the chancels and altars, (vestiges of Popery as they declared,) the painted windows, the bells, and all other symbols, placed there, in adaptation to the age when they were built. The clergy were ostracised or killed outright, their places occupied hj preachers and ex- horters ; and the reformation was thus carried forward to receive its death blow in Quakerism. At this day, all the various religious sects, even to the Meth- odists and Baptists, are building church edifices of parti-colored stones, and gro- tesque, (to use a doctor's term) hydro- cephalus windows and doors ; (big heads and little legs ;) with imitation chancels, and imitation altars, and darkened by gaudily painted glass windows, pictures and emblems on the walls, organs, steeples, and bells, in contempt, in gross contempt of the dicta, of these vener- ated Puritan fathers ; and in close imitation of the grand Minsters of Europe, built by those horrid papists of old ; even to the candles, lighted to take the place of the sun, shut out by the gaudily painted window glass. This is modern reformation. But those old Minsters and Gothic