Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-11-04
MODEEiIA1 CHlT ECTURE.


The Conditions Unt.er Which we Huiid
REGULAR 10 our Il Ai1Ies.
Ban Ferree i'll Engineering Magazine:
Architecture i'll great cities, and
especially in American cities, is no
longer the ornamental and ornamented
art 1t was i'll the good I'D times" The
middle ages We're distinctly an art era;
the nineteenth century is as distinctly u
business and manufacturing epoch. The
conditions Which prevailed i'll the one
do not prevail in the other. We have
not passed beyond appreciation of beau
tiful churches and splendid public build
ingS, albeit we have few examples of
either on which to feast our eyes ami
inlaginationS in this country, but we
have long since passed the point ut
which these fascinating structures make
up the sum total of architectural work.
AS the mediaeyal cathedral is the most
conspicuous object in the Old continent
al cities, SO the modern office building
is the type of architecture i'll the new
cities OF the new world.
We may deplore the lack of pictur-
eSque variety in the Sky-lineS OF our
cities; we may regret the departure OF
the art days OF the past; but il We
would console ourselves for these
changed conditions, and find SauSfac-
ton III the work Of the present day,
we must admit, once for all, that we
built under conditions OF our own, which
have no precedent in former times. We
must measure our work by our own
standard aud requirements, not by those
OF dead past. Not one THINKS Of pass
ing on the beauty-or ugliness-of mod
ern fashions simply because they are
not modelled on those of the thirteenth
century; why, then, should we make
the architectural productions OF that
time, great and beautiful and wonder
full us they are, the criterion of modern
architecture? Yet consciously or un-
consciously this is what the larger part
of writer's and critics OF architecture do.
Pick up any glideDook, run down
through any encyclopaedia, and the
, buildings described as characteristic vi
{ any city Will be the great churches,
the city hall, If there be one, the public
buildings, and perhaps the most note
Worthy-which being interpreted means
] the most Commentator mercantile
and financial structures. Possibly the
residence OF some noted citizen, or the
| scene or some celebrated event may be
nouced; the great mass Of city buildings
are unmentioned, because, it may be
supposed, they are too insignificant.
! 1t is characteristic OF the times to omit
the many for the lew, TO single out IN
dividuaIs at the expense OF the bulk OF
! society.
Any study of this architecture which
ignores the conditions under which
! the modern cities thrive and grow, 10
matter how infinitely special structures
may be described, falls ludicrOuSly
! short of completeness. Hamlet with
! Hamlet left out would be a very singu-
! lar play indeed. New York minus its
tenements would not know itself.
| Tenements and stores and private
dwellings and apartment houses and
office buildings and railroad stations
| and factories and warehouseS-th thou
sand and one forms of structure press
ed into service by the requirements of
Guy NE OF lue ueceSSllA VI UuSlLeSS-
may not always be models of archi-
tectural elegance, but they make the
bulk of the city, give it form and de
finitenesS, express its relative prosper
ity and greatness. The LOO may give
elegance to society, just as the churches
and public buildings do to municipal
architecture, but it is the masses which
make the city what it is, and even give
diStinctveness to the chosen. Tene-
ments and factories may be unintertest-
ing as specimens Of architecture, but
they are part of the essential structures
CT great cities like London and New
York
A county treasurer has been arrest
!. ed in South Dakota on the charge OF
ornhoyz1onopf