The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1882-12-10
THE NEW PENSION OFFICE.

1t was bad enough to take up judiciary
square by the erection Of cumparatiyely cheap and
unSightly Pension ONCE, work upon which threatens
toConvert the park iuto howng wilderness FOR years
TO comes but now appears that the proposed building
Is meeting with the derSlon Ut architects, as 1t wilo
people OF taste when completed. gen. NJ G.. Moigsis
an able engineer and honest man, but he has
been heard Ofas Michael Angelo In other directions
and lie has probably reached age when he Is little
amenable to the advice or suggestions uf others, 1t
appears that this building has been left very much to
him as "superylsing superintendent and architect -
aud Ia likely 20 he his pet, though other people
wonder and y curiosity. As near rs can be Judged
from the descriptions given to the public tits designed
internally theplan OF the grand saloon Of an Amer
can steamboat, now for the first time, probably
applied to . great public oncc. Externally, the
dimensions are IOON2OO feet. Internally, there
is an Immense hail. 3GxiiG feet, and running up TO
the roof Tho space between the walls is filled with
oces ranged like the little staterooms OF the arore-
said steamboat, with no communication save the
immense court yard hall, the temperature of
which In winter may he Imagined.
To speak more technically, the structure is alleged
to he designed after the famous Farnese palace though
TO the uulearned 1t bears more resemblance to that
previous triumph Of General NIelgs's architectural
skin, the queer "Natonal Museum ~ which Hanks
the smithsonian Institution Externally II is of simple,
monotonous design, with long rows Of windows In the
italian STYLE three stories high, seventy five feetto
the caves resting squarely ON tho ground without
basement or apparent foundation, and surmounted
only by kind OF asc story or half story under the
roof, designed to light the immense cortiLe or hall
within. The entrances each front directly
to this and entering If the building be finished as
proposed, the spectator will lind himself lost In the
giant apartment the roof of which Is supported by
eight great columns of brick work. Cor everything Is
necessarily on acheap SCALE and which surrounded
by two arcaded galleries, giving to the various
rooms. The stairs run up alongside each main
trance. The galleries, or arcades, twelve feet
wide and of course deduct that much from the I'M
mcnsity of void space Within The columns are ranged
across In lines of four, cqudstln from each end, and
being eight or nine feet at the base diminish the spaces
for passing between them to less than twenty feet.
We mention this because 1t has been suggested that
General Meigs designed To give the Government and
the city permanent hall that would answer for great
state occasions, such mauguratOns, receptions,
public addresses without taxing the confined and
oveiCrOwded dimensions Of the Capitol, where so
much internal space has been sacrificed to dubious
architectural display. ThlS would have been
worthy ambition for about to retire from his long
abOrs and services TO Washington and the country,
| but why then, may ask, substantially the
| same repeated rs In the Capitol, by putting
these huge pillars where they would lie most In tho
way in of great public assemblage In the cor
| tie2 span OF ll6 feet in the clear is by no means
beyond the capabilities Of modern architecture,
| and 1t would that the added expense,
| II any, for roof, would lie saved In the
/ cost of the columns. There is indeed great
need for a public hall here under the control of
| the Government, and II will continue to grow more
urgent all those resored to in previous years. such
! the Patent Onicc. the Corcorau Art Gallery, the
White House, the National huscum, and the Capitol
being either ougrown or fully taken up FOR their own
| peculiar purposes. They We're never fully adapted
for popular concOursc in the first place, and this
must be the apprehension felt about the new Pension
Office cOrtHe, II Gen. MegS's idea Is correctly
missed. There is the further serious question whether
the interests of such important bureau that of
/ Pensions, where prompt action life
or death to many, should lie sacrificed in
the slightest degree to any other considera-
| tiou, and whether the amateur architect has
not attempted to unite two Incompatible things.
II seems n little singular that neither the Commits
siOner OF Pensions any of his experienced clerks
was interTogated or consulted by the commits
sion having charge of the new building (Secretaries
Lincoln and Teller and General Meigsl to the
peculiar needs of that bureau. 1t cannot be doubted
that they would all have given opinions in favor of
very large for the clerical workers, the div-
] sIOns under many of the chief clerks being more
numerous than In any other Department, extending
to one hundred and One hundred and fifty, and
slant supervision by the chief and access to him being
desirable. The plan adopted tends, on the contrary,
toa number Of comparatively small apartments, wit.
incOnvenient and exposed modes Of connection, a
| grievance which can be only partially overcome by
connecting them In suites by large tOdingdOOrs be-
tween. slight inquiry at the Pension ONCE, II
would seem, would also have prevented the nepti-
ude Of providing no particular place for the I'M
mense files and records, CumbrOuS as indspensa-
BILE with which that office has to deal. The Farneso
Palace mas neither basement nor attics, any par
tlcular system OF vaults stOrerOOms. The files
will, therefore, have IL be scattered through
the various Offices, either inaccessible tax.
ing up space that might lie better employed.
Another OF the Generals hobbies that Il
likely to result disasrOusy ls said to he "frlc2c
to go round the building above the first story. Illus
'tTatng from soldier life, ~ dncludng, per-
haps, the designing OF buildings by retired Army
engineers, to carve which In anything like artistic
style would run oil with considerable fraction o.
the entire amount allowed for the construction of thu
building, which Is limited to 800, 600.
some persons may approve of The very OddIty ant
novelty of the - Farneie palace - design rreyer'
dressing rooms around it, and have therefore
deavOred To give as full description as practicable
without reproducing the plans before us, In ordel
that all may Judge for themselves. If 1t should ap.
pear that great mistake is being perpetrated in ugly
brick and mortar, 1t is best to have 1t fully under
stood at once by public discnssion that such an
other may be prevented In future, II the present