Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/910

 742 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [June, In ecclesiastical Architecture we are more prone to adopt the whims of Euro- pean resuscitators, and thus are we led to group together numerous small towers that lead to nowhere, and es- tablish heavy buttresses that stoutly bear up nothing, and what with rose windows that illumine only the rough backs of organs, and decorated niches that seem to hae been vacated by their saints ; not to speak of the very aeriel effect of flying buttresses that seem too flighty to be useful ; we think we have been sufficiently pliable worshippers at the shrine of fashion to secure for us a modicum of credit in our day from those whose thoughts are a-la-mode. But, to return to civil life — Have we not most industrious^ cultivated the acquaint- ance of the Middle Ages, because our brethren across the Atlantic have dug up the dust of styles and compositions which Fashion now stamps as "high art," and which that same Fashion in past ages, would have stamped low into the earth ? If we have been derelict in our loyalty to our Greek and Roman teachers, we certainly cannot be accused of failing to uphold the train of Fashion and follow its attractive folds, even at a respectful distance. Do we not pro- claim the ownership of our building by a monogram, puzzling to the crowd, but decipherable by a select few — just as in school-boy days we worried with a jack- knife our initials on the frame of our slate. Then we did not dream that the act was fated by the inevitable fiat of Fashion to become a feature of the me- diaeval revival. Yet so it is, that even our great art, with all its mists of hoary time surroundingits world of a history, is nevertheless as amenable to the ruling nod of the fickle goddess Fashion, as is the youthful miss who has but yester- d&y made her blushing debut on the critical stage of life. Here, in America, we claim to be a reasoning people, exempt from the tinselled follies of the Continent we fled — but still our manners, dress, and even solid Architecture must, if they are anything, be positively a-la- mode. IKON BUILDINGS.— No. 3. By William J. Fryer, Jr., N. Y, IROX in its architectural application has had much to contend with. Its enemies have ever been bold and emphatic ; its friends hesitating and weak. Mistakes occurred in the use of cast-iron from its unskilful disposal, and the material was judged more bjr the mistakes made by the unskilful, than by its capabilities for proper application. An aesthetic taste gave rein to a false sentiment and openly despised iron as a building material. Constructors in iron took extreme advantage of the ability of cast-iron to resist compression, and of the tensile power of wrought-iron, and in an utilitarian spirit produced spider-like structures suggesting nothing save economy of space and material. Over- loading the surfaces with ornament gave their structures a flashy and vulgar appearance. These early stages have been passed, and taste and utilitj' now go hand in hand. A building should bear the impress of solidity, as though it were indeed a growth of the earth itself, and not of so fragile an appear- ence that the winds can blow it away. A broad play for light and shadow should be given in every case. Iron affords a cheaper material, a more en- during material, and cleaner and sharper than stone, and it is claimed for it "to be the best material, all things considered, for the street architecture of our Aineri-